Land of Jewels (Sana Leibak)

NE in age of coalition politics: touchstone of Meghalaya The new council of ministers, with a predominance of Congress representatives, shows a fascinating compromise that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi as well as their chief aides, not least Rahul Gandhi, have manoeuvred. And nowhere is the delicate, difficult and thankless task of coalition building seen best as in the case of little Meghalaya where both members of parliament have found a place. The reason is not far to seek: it is an interesting reflection of the complex and inconsistent reality both of Indian politics as well as of the immense challenges that the Northeast presents to New Delhi. In one way it's simple: Purno Sangma's daughter, Agatha, won from the Tura constituency which was her father's fiefdom for 30 years. The youngest member of the Lok Sabha at 28, she defeated her nearest rival, Deborah Marak, by a bare 17,945 votes. It was clearly a close call and her opponent, a...

Exercise deferred in Assam, Arunachal, Manipur, Nagaland: New Delhi, Apr 25 (PTI) Government has amended the Representation of the People Act 1950 to enable the Election Commission conduct future elections with the redrawn boundaries of constituencies, the Lok Sabha was informed on Friday. The Representation of the People (Amendment) Act, 2008, which came into force on April 16, is aimed at helping the EC consolidate the delimitation orders and take steps for holding elections in terms of these orders, Law minister H R Bhardwaj said in written reply. The minister informed the House that delimitation exercise in respect of all the states, except Jammu and Kashmir, has been completed. The exercise in respect of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland has been deferred, he said. The Delimitation Commission's final orders in respect of the Jharkhand have been nullified till 2026 by section 10 B of the Delimitation Act 2002, he said. Source : The Press Trust of India

Air Deccan employee was to give help: New Delhi, Apr 24: The Ministry of Civil Aviation has confirmed that terrorist outfits planned to hijack an aircraft from North Eastern Region (NER). The admission is significant because Assam Police had a couple of months back claimed to have unearthed a conspiracy to hijack an aircraft from LGBI Airport. An employee of Air Deccan was detained in this connection. Civil Aviation Minister, Praful Patel in a Lok Sabha reply, said that several intelligence inputs have been received by Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) regarding terrorist outfits planning to hijack civilian aircrafts from North Eastern States (NES). On receipt of intimation about any threat message from intelligence agencies, an alert message is issued by BCAS with a copy to the concerned regional Deputy Commissioner of Security with specific instructions to coordinate with the concerned agencies at the airports and to monitor the security arrangements, Patel added. An Air Decca...

Meinya takes up rail cause for NE States: New Delhi, Apr 23: Member of Parliament from Inner Manipur Parliamentary Constituency Dr Thokchom Meinya, has underlined that all the State capitals in the North Eastern states except Dispur, capital of Assam have no rail connection. Though it was a long pending demand to connect all State capitals by trains, it is not yet implemented in the North Eastern region. Dr Meinya urged the Union Minister of Railways Lalu Prasad Yadav to connect the remaining seven State capitals of North East Region by rail without any delay. Participating at the discussion on the Demands for Grants of the Ministry of Railways for the year 2008-09 on Thursday last in the Lok Sabha, the Parliamentarian from Manipur stated that the total length of railways in the North Eastern region is about 500 Kms, though the size of the entire North East is one tenth of the whole country. He also pointed out that the British constructed half of the existing rail-lines in the North E...

Dr Meinya petitions Patil on state affairs: New Delhi, April 22: Member of Parliament from Inner Manipur Parliamentary Constituency Dr Thokchom Meinya, drew the attention of the Union Home Minister for taking up some specific measures for bringing normalcy in Manipur. Participating at the discussion on the Demands for Grants of the Ministry of Home Affairs for 2008-09 in the Lok Sabha yesterday, Dr Meinya referred to the Status Report on the Internal Security situation in India which pointed out that the main challenges to internal security and law and order situation in the country centred around terrorist violence in Jammu and Kashmir, North East and Naxal affected areas and communal violence. He observed that while the situation in Jammu and Kashmir continued to show definite improvement, the overall situation in Assam and Manipur in the North Eastern Region remained an area of concern. Even though the counter insurgency operations had been stepped up in the region, killings of civi...

Dr Sidhu greets people: Imphal, Dec 31: On the occasion of New Year's Day 2008, Governor Dr SS Sidhu has conveyed best wishes to the people of Manipur. In his message, the Governor said that New Year's Day is not only an occasion for introspection but also for searching and evolving new resolutions for the coming year. Dr Sidhu also wished every one a new year full of peace, happiness, contentment, progress and prosperity. Greeting the people on the occasion of New Year's Day, Chief Minister O Ibobi called upon all to make a firm resolution to fight and defeat the evil designs of divisive and disruptive forces. The Chief Minister further appealed to the people to join hands in the noble task for restoring peace and prosperity in Manipur. MPCC president Gaikhangam wished that the New Year may bring about peace, harmony and prosperity for all. "Let violence and conflict give way to love and peace in the State with the arrival of 2008," said Lok Sabha MP Dr T Meinya ...

Will wait for completion in four NE states: New Delhi: Following a lengthy meeting of a Group of Ministers chaired by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee earlier this week, the Government appears to have put implementation of the Delimitation Commission report on a fast-track. The GoM meeting took place days after the Supreme Court stayed the conduct of the delimitation operation in four Northeastern states and also questioned the delay in implementation of delimitation in 25 states for which notifications have already been issued by the Commission. Two decisions appear to have been taken at the GoM’s last meeting. One, that the President should be sent the consolidated delimitation report for final notification (with Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Manipur) and despite the 25 notifications being placed in Parliament, Members of Parliament needed to be further sensitised on the result of the delimitation exercise in their individual constituencies. The Law Ministry, has,...

Messages of love and peace pour in: Imphal, Dec 24: Messages of peace, love and amity have poured in from different quarters on Christmas eve. Greeting the people of Manipur, particularly the Christians, Governor Dr SS Sidhu in a statement said that Lord Jesus was born to build a new world order based on peace, justice and equality of mankind. “In celebrating His birth, we, besides paying our obeisance to this outstanding apostle of peace, have to rededicate ourselves to the ideals, principles and eternal values espoused by Him,” said the Governor. The message of love, mercy, forgiveness, benevolence, compassion and sacrifices has become increasingly important at the present juncture, when the atmosphere is polluted with enmity and hatred between man and man and Nation and Nation, said the Governor and added that “this is man made.” There is no enmity between soul and soul, observed Dr Sidhu and exhorted, “Let the principles enunciated and message preached by Him, guide the mankind to ...

Exercise to be over in two months: New Delhi: The process for delimitation of constituencies has entered its final leg with the resumption of delimitation work in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Manipur. The work in these North-Eastern States was held up due to the stay order of Guwahati High Court on account of petitions challenging the legality of the 2001 Census. With the stay being vacated by the Supreme Court recently, the delimitation work is going to be over very soon. The Delimitation Commission of India Chairperson Justice Kuldeep Singh told The Indian Express that the Commission is going to complete the readjustment of constituencies in these States within two months. “After the vacation of the stay by the SC, the work is going in full speed and we hope to complete it in two months. With this, the work of the Commission will be over,” said Singh. However, when asked whether the delimitation orders would be implemented in the next general elections, Singh said that it w...

Chauhan arrives, starts one to one meet with CLP members: Imphal, Dec 11: AICC general secretary in charge of the North East and Union Minister of State in the PMO, Prithiviraj Chauhan who arrived at Imphal on Tuesday to get a first hand account of the revolt raised by some dissident Congress MLAs against the leadership of O Ibobi has started meeting the CLP members individually to hear their opinion. Chauhan who was deputed as an Observer by the AICC will submit his report on reaching Delhi. Chauhan along with Lok Sabha MP Dr T Meinya and executive member of the MPCC (I) L Manglem landed at Tulihal airport on Tuesday at 2 pm. The team was received by a large number of Congress men including MPCC (I) president Gaikhangam, Ministers, MLAs, party workers and members of the Seva Dal. On his arrival, Chauhan called on the Governor at Raj Bhawan along with Gaikhangam. After a short break at Raj Bhawan, Chauhan then proceeded to RIMS to look into the development works being taken up there. L...

Advani assures support to Manipur all party team: Imphal, Dec 10: Delegates of the state all political party forum currently in New Delhi to campaign for delinking Manipur from the delimitation process met with the Opposition leader of the Lok Sabha, LK Advani on Monday seeking his support for their demand seeking a halt to the delimitation process in the state. The all party delegation briefed the BJP leader on various aspects of the controversial issue of delimitation in the state, and made it clear that carrying forward delimitation in Manipur on the basis of the ‘bogus’ 2001 census report would result in undesirable consequences, according to a statement of the NCP general secretary K Sharatkumar on behalf of the all political parties delegation. The BJP leader has assured the delegation that he would suggest to the Central government to convene an all political parties meet to consider the delegation’s demands, particularly for delinking the states of Manipur, Nagaland, Assam and ...

Prithviraj Chauhan arriving Imphal on Tuesday: Imphal, Dec 10: Amidst heightened suspense surrounding the month long hectic campaign by the rebel MLAs to replace O Ibobi as Chief Minister of Manipur, AICC North East in-charge Prithiviraj Chauhan will be arriving at Imphal on Tuesday afternoon as the Central observer to take stock of the existing political situation personally. According to information received from the dissident camp, a series of meetings have been held among the rebel MLAs and necessary political strate-gies chalked out ahead of the arrival of the AICC observer. On the other side, in view of the AICC observer’s arrival, Congress MLAs and MPCC/DCC leaders and Congress candidates defeated in the last Assembly elections supporting O Ibobi have been mobilising themselves with three camps opened at the officials quarters of IFC Minister N Biren, Social Welfare Minister N Loken and Works Minister K Ranjit. Chauhan will be accompanied by Lok Sabha MP Dr T Meinya and MPCC exe...

Dr Meinya demands separate High Court: New Delhi, Dec 6: Participating in the discussion on "Need for harmonious functioning of three organs of the state" in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, Dr. Thokchom Meinya, MP from the Inner Manipur Parliamentary Constituency stated that the basic structure of the Indian Constitution was the separation of power among legislature, judiciary and executive. He said, "There appears, at times, some so-called conflicts rather apparent conflicts in the working and functioning of these three vital organs of the state. The one and only way to avoid and to have these conflicts or aberrations resolved is to practice self restraint and self respect and to practice true professional ethics". He also added that none of these organs should try to give directional instructions to the other organs and vice-versa. This would definitely go a long way towards harmonizing the smooth functioning of these organs of the state. Dr. Meinya referred to Article...

Chauhan likely to visit Imphal on Sunday; ‘rebels’ to return home: Imphal, Dec 6: The campaign to replace Okram Ibobi as chief minister by the rebel Congress MLAs who are now camping in New Delhi continues unabated despite the unexpected turn of events in which 10 opposition MLAs including the six sponsored by United Naga Council, UNC, professedly coming out in support of the chief minister. The rebels have in fact, seemingly succeeded in advancing another pawn on the political chessboard, predicted to cause another serious threat to the chief minister`s defence. At 11.15am this morning (Thursday), the man projected as a possible replacement for Ibobi, Th Debendra, met the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh at his office room at the Parliament House. Although the details of what transpired are not known, the meeting presumably had to do with the campaign to remove Ibobi as Congress Legislature Party, CLP leader. Interestingly, the rebel MLAs also met with the PM at 3.30pm again in his r...