Land of Jewels (Sana Leibak)

'DoNER should be further empowered': New Delhi: The North East MPs forum has urged the Prime Minister to make the DoNER Ministry a full fledged one with more powers and budget instead of abolishing it altogether as suggested by the Administrative Reforms Commission recently. "While opposing the recommendations of the Commission, we also strongly urge upon your good office to upgrade the Ministry of DoNER to a full fledged Ministry with all powers vested in it and with adequate financial and coordinating powers for the development of the North Eastern Region", the MPs who met Dr Manmohan Singh on Thursday night said, adding that the entire fund accumulated in the consolidated fund of India, as accruals in the NLCPR should be kept at the disposal of the Ministry of DONER so that it could exclusively play the role of a nodal Ministry for planning and all round development of the Region. "The Ministry of DoNER has so far only been distributing the Non-lapsable Centra...

'Rebels' ready to give another push, Gaikhangam in Delhi: Imphal, Jan 7: The pressure being exerted by the rebel MLAs camping in New Delhi in pursuance of their demand for replacement of O Ibobi Singh as the chief minister of the state is likely to intensify as the rebels have started gathering at the national capital again. MPCC chief Gaikhangam reached the national capital on Sunday and two ministers, Y Erabot and DD Thaisii, are likely to join the camp within a few days, a source from the rebel camp said on Monday. A group of Congress legislators from the state, mention may be made, are demanding ouster of O Ibobi Singh from chief ministerial post and have been camping in New Delhi since November first week to press for their demands. They returned together for a brief period to Imphal and camped in here during the visit of the Union minister of state attached to the PMO during his visit to the state in the early part of December last year. Since then they have regrouped at ...

Pratibha Patil signs decree: New Delhi, Jan 3: Nagaland was on Thursday night brought under central rule with President Pratibha Patil putting her stamp of approval on the recommendation of the union cabinet in this regard. The President, who was handed over the recommendation yesterday, signed the proclamation on Thursday evening, Home Ministry sources said. Patil, who is at present in Hyderabad, had received the decision of the cabinet taken at its unscheduled meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on January one. The cabinet meeting was convened at a short notice to discuss the political situation in Nagaland against the backdrop of the BJP-backed Democratic Alliance winning a controversial no-confidence motion last month. Nephiu Rio survived the trial of strength on the floor of the assembly on December 13when it was defeated 23-19 in the 60-member House after Speaker barred three independents from taking part in voting and held that the votes of nine dissident ruling NPF...

Work on in full swing: Jiribam, Dec 31: Works on the Jiri-Tupul rail line have been on full swing since November 24 with the survey conducted by the Rail India Technical and Economic Services (RITES) at its final leg. Already land for laying 10 km of the rail track has been acquired by the North East Frontier Railway in Jiribam sub-division. The rest of the land needed for laying the track will be acquired from Tamenglong district. Presently work for a distance of 15 km from Jiribam to Dholakhai is on with three private companies engaged in the said work. The three companies are CC Company, Bharatya Company and Triveni Company. The 15 km, for which work is presently underway, have been divided equally among the three companies, 5 km for each company. Speaking to this correspondent, the Officer-in-charge of CC Company, BM Sharma, said his company has undertaken the works from Jiribam station to Phaitoul covering a distance of 5 km. The construction works include cutting, leveling and b...

Rebel Cong MLAs strike confident pose: Imphal, Dec 30: Striking a confident pose, the dissident Congress MLAs who have been demanding a change in the leadership of the Congress Legislature Party have claimed that the AICC may soon take a decision in their favour within the next couple of days. The rebel MLAs, who have raised the banner of revolt against the leadership of Chief Minister O Ibobi for the last few months claim the support of 19 MLAs out of the 31 Congress MLAs in the House of 60. Apart from the deteriorating law and order situation, the rebel MLAs have launched the anti-Ibobi drive on the 'total failure to govern' plank. Significantly, the claim of the rebel MLAs that the AICC may soon take a decision within the next couple of days came after the AICC secretary in charge of North East Prithiviraj Chauhan submitted his report to the AICC leadership after his visit to the State about two weeks back. Apart from getting a first hand account of the law and order situati...

Cabinet to probe faulty contract process: Imphal, Dec 29: Along with revising the cost of Khuga Multipurpose Project which has been under construction since Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh was the Deputy Chairman of Union Planning Commission about 20 years back, the State Cabinet has decided to initiate an enquiry into awarding contract works worth Rs 29 crore which were out of the purview of the project and fix responsibility under Manipur Public Servant Personnel Liability Act. The Cabinet meeting held this evening with Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh in the chair decided to take up action against the engineers involved in awarding the contract works by invoking the provisions of the Act after an enquiry. Out of the contract works of Rs 29 crore which were awarded out of the purview of the project during 2005-06, Rs 11 crore had already been withdrawn while the work orders for over Rs 6 crore had been frozen by the Government after it got wind of the matter. The Cabinet meeting decided...

Rio wants Myanmar to recognize NSCN (K) Guwahati, Dec 20: The Nagaland Government wants that the Mynamarese Junta recognize the NSCN (K) group of militants holed up in that country for early resolution of the Naga peace process. Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio said he had raised the matter with the External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukharjee. “I am going to write to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to pressurize the military junta to recognize the NSCN (K) in their side of the border so that we can push forward the case,” he said. The NSCN(K) or Khaplang faction of National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) has been largely based at Myanmar since they had split up with the Issac-Muivah faction of the NSCN. As the peace process has entered a crucial stage with the Centre, there were efforts to cover all the Nagas under the possible solution. However, it is not so easy as the political boundary of India and Myanmar have separated many...

Dissident MLAs returning Saturday, Chauhan coming on Dec 11: Imphal, Dec 7: Following days of camping in New Delhi to present their case to AICC leaders in their oust Ibobi campaign, most of the rebel MLAs will touch down at Tulihal airport tomorrow (Saturday). After meeting Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh yesterday (Thursday), the rebel MLAs met AICC chief Sonia Gandhi today (Friday) at about 11 am and made their stand against the continued leadership of O Ibobi clear. Sonia Gandhi is also the Chairperson of the UPA. The rebel MLAs were led by senior Congressman, Th Debendra and during their meeting with Sonia Gandhi, they gave a detailed account of the deteriorating law and order situation in the State, the 'total flop' of the administration, tardy development works as well as the growing dissatisfaction among the Congress workers in the MPCC (I) against the Chief Minister's leadership. Though details of what were discussed at the meeting were not disclosed, the dissiden...