Manipur News

IMPHAL, May 22: As part of the nation wide protest for the repeal of Armed Forces Special Powers Act, the Just Peace Foundation also organized an event called the Children’s Parliament on AFSPA at Hotel Imphal.
According to a release of the foundation, the participants for the Children’s Parliament on AFSPA was were selected after rigorous screening program from several applicants in Manipur University on 19th May 2011.
The release further added that the house had unanimously pass on that the Armed Forces Special Powers Act 1958 which should not have been enacted in the first case and whose time have elapsed long back must be repealed in all its totality, immediately. The parliament was modeled on the existing parliament of the country with the treasury bench and opposition and a speaker.
The program was also attended by over 150 participants from various civil societies, parents, families, friends and several women members from United RTI Women’s Group.This Children’s Parliament is one of the first of its kind against AFSPA in the North East. The idea is to learn on the current trends of violence under AFSPA from the children’s perspective and also to voice children’s concern to an important public issue affecting their life.
The release further added identified the schoold student participants as Anamika Heirangkhongjam,15, from Nirmalabas High School, Chinlemba Naganbam, 17, from DAV Public School, Thingbaijam Thabahanbi Chanu,17, from Royal Academy of Science, Langoljam Kirankumar Meitei, 15, from C.T. Higher Secondary School, Mayang Imphal, Leisangthem Lamyanba Meitei, 18, from Millennium Institute of Science Imphal, Arambam Tingku Devi,14,  from Lamding High School, Wangjing Bazaar, Oinam Bikash Singh,18, from DM College of Science Imphal in the treasury bench and on the opposition bench Miranda Thoudam, 15 , from Sainik School Imphal, Pangei. And the whole program was anchored by Konsam Lamyanbi Chanu, 17,  from Human Resource Development Academy, Ghari.
While, Yambem Laba, Former Member Manipur Human Rights Commission attended the parliament as the speaker, the release added.
Meanwhile, a SOLIDARITY MARCH FOR THE REPEAL of AFSPA AND RELEASE OF IROM SHARMILA, was also carried out in the southern city of Bangalore organized jointly by the PUCL( Bangalore) with National Alliance of People`s Movement (Karnataka), Alternative Law Forum, New Socialist Alternative, People`s Solidarity Concerns, Kashmir Youth Intellect, Centre for Social Concern(St. Josephs College), Maraa, Sangama, Aneka, Pedestrian Pictures, National Confederation of Human Rights Organisation, Student Christian Movement of India (Bangalore), Stree Jagrutu Samiti, Slum Jagattu, Sichrem, Vimochana, People`s Democratic Forum and many other human rights and communal harmony bodies organised the Bangalore event on Sunday.
The ,march was held at the Town Hall to Mahatma Gandhi Statue, MG Road, Bangalore from 5pm to 7pm.
A press release has stated that the draconian act of AFSPA has been implemented in North eastern states of India since 1958 and in Jammu and Kashmir since 1991. It was on May 22, 1958, that the AFSPA was promulgated in the north east as an ordinance. This law is more draconian than its predecessor ordinance used by the British to suppress the Quit India Movement. It gave extraordinary powers to members of the armed forces, to arrest without warrant and shoot to kill on the basis of suspicion; and no legal action can be taken up against the armed forces without prior sanction from the Centre, the release stated.
Irom Sharmila has been on hunger fast for more than 10 years now demanding repeal of AFSPA . She has been force fed through her nose by the Government, arrested with charges for attempt to commit suicide, criminalized as a high security prisoner, denying her access to family, friends, supporters and the media, it further stated.
Various movements in the North East and Kashmir and human rights groups across the country have consistently demanded the repeal of the Act. AFSPA is not only opposed by the civil society groups but also by the Government’s own commissions and committees appointed to look into the matter. The Committee to Review the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, headed by Justice B. P. Jeevan Reddy in 2005, the Administrative Reforms Commission headed by Dr. Veerappa Moily in 2007 and several others have recommended its repeal.
Internationally, UN bodies including the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the U N High Commissioner for Human Rights and recently the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders have urged for its repeal, it added.
The release further maintained that the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) hereby calls to all democratic forums, human rights groups , people’s movements and all concerned citizens to initiate various public protest actions from May 22 to August 18, demanding repeal of AFSPA and immediate release of Irom Sharmila.

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IMPHAL, May 22: The Federation of College Teachers’ Association, Manipur (FECTAM) has decided to boycott the upcoming Imphal Municipal Council election schedule to be held on May 25 besides launching a series of agitation in protest against the failure of the government to implement the revised UGC pay scale in the state for the college teachers.
The FECTAM in a statement said that the decision was resolved unanimously during a special general body meeting held today at GP Women’s College.
It said that the meeting was attended by teachers from both hills and valley and discussed issues relating to the failure of the government in implementation of the revised UGC scale despite memorandum of understanding signed between the Government and the FECTAM in the presence of the Chief Minister.
The meeting deliberately discussed the failure to give executive orders despite the MoU and also lamented that the college teachers are drawing the unrevised salary while the other government employees are receiving the revised pay and also two doses of DA, it said.
It further expressed the discontentment of the disparity meted out to the teachers and stated that the situation has greatly affected the enthusiasm of the teachers in discharging their normal duties. Terming it as a great lost to the society regarding the higher secondary education in the state, the teachers view the indifferent attitude of the government as gross violation of article 14 of the Indian Constitution.
Apart from resolving to boycott the Municipal Council Election the meet also adopted several other resolutions which included submitting an ultimatum to the government with June 4 as the deadline for issuing executive orders for implementation of the revised UGC scale pay in to to.
The meet also resolved to launch series of agitations from June 6 in case of failure on the part of the government to meet the deadline.
It elaborated that the agitations would be launched in phase wise, including a protest rally on June 6, sit in protest on daily basis by each college in turn from June 7, one day hunger strike on a date to be notified by the executive committee, cease work strike from June 15 which will be followed by “Mass Resignation” of the college teachers, in the event of unsatisfactory response from the Government. 

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It is amazing that a single day of torrential rain yesterday and Imphal city was water-logged at many different areas. In another month or so, when the monsoon is upon the state in full gusto, it is imaginable what the scenario would be. It is not as if this is a new development. Each year, the problem has been progressively becoming worse, implying that the government ought to have begun its remedial actions much earlier. But as they say, it is better late than never. It must now jump into action without further delay. Let us also remind the government that the loss is not just in terms of inconveniences caused to the general public but also in very real revenue losses as well. Take just one instance. The black topping on the roads of Imphal are not flood proof. As it is, they are done so thin and flimsy that even without water logging, rainwater seeps through them to wet and muddy the ground underneath them, inducing the bitumen and mortar surface to begin crumbling. This being the case, water-logging would definitely mean a great deal more damages to Imphal roads, and this is there for everybody to witness every year. Literally, every water-logged monsoon in the past decade or so has meant the washing away of considerable length of roads in the Imphal area alone.
There are two areas immediately actionable. One is in the area of clearing the clogged drains all over Imphal. In some areas, especially in the suburbs, many of the elaborate traditional drainage systems known as khongban have disappeared, thanks to encroachments by residents. It is perhaps true that the traditional drainage system were too big and but much less efficient than the more scientifically conceived and constructed modern drains, and hence their replacement was necessary to reclaim some valuable land without losing out on drainage capacities. But the problem is, while the traditional khongban have disappeared, their modern replacements are still either missing or where they have been installed they are badly constructed and virtually worthless, with the end effect that drain water easily gets clogged.
The second area of immediate action is the issue of disposable plastic shopping bags. These non bio-degradable bags not only make for very ugly sights at every garbage dump, official ones as well unofficial, but they ultimately become a chief agent for clogging city drains. In fact, as many in Imphal would have noticed, they even clog the Nambul River in the stretch of the river that passes by the western side of the Paona Bazar. The government must without further delay re-impose the ban that once existed on the use of plastic bags. Many other cities and indeed states have done it, and amongst the most successful in the northeast region is Sikkim. Indeed plastic bags are going out of fashion everywhere, including in the national capital Delhi as well as other big cities of the country and Manipur must not remain unconcerned. Not only do they clog, but since they are not bio-degradable, they make for virtually unmanageable city wastes. Banning them would thus also amount to a valuable contribution towards promoting healthy world ecology.
There would definitely be businesses and small industries based on making these bags even in the state. They would definitely suffer, but for the greater common good, they would have to find some other means to continue their businesses. The government, in the name of fair play, can also step in and provide them with easy loans and consultancy to shift their business to making shopping bags with other approved easily bio-degradable materials. But it must not like the last time bow down to lobbies which want the continuance of this extremely destructive practice. It must also be remembered that each year tonnes of plastic wastes are ultimately washed into the Loktak Lake where most of the rivers of the state flow into, and this obviously would hasten the death of the lake. The shift in the ecology of the entire state in such a consequence is beyond imagination, but all the same a very real prospect now. Let the government then act now without further delay and ban plastic bags strictly without any compromises. Slap huge fines as deterrent on any shop offering them. We also wonder what all our brigades of environmental NGOs have been doing in the regards. Should not the state have heard of campaigns by them towards the same end long ago? But let bygones be bygones, and they too must now come to the fore to help in the initiative. The ordinary citizens too must be willing to bear the inconvenience for ultimately they will all be the beneficiaries.

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IMPHAL May 22: The International Day for Biological Diversity was observed today at Kangla on the theme “Forest Biodiversity, Earth’s living treasure”. The observation was organized by Environment and Ecology Wing, Porompat, Imphal -05, Government of Manipur.
P.C. Lawmkunga, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary, Forest & Environment, government of Manipur graced the function as the chief guest. Resource persons from different academic fields were also present at the dais.
A formal tree plantation was held at Kangla in connection with the observation.
During the observation several indigenous fish (Pengba) were also released in the inner moat of Kangla led by the chief guest.
P.C. Lawmkunga, in his speech as the chief guest, asserted that as far as biodiversity is concerned, Manipur is also considered as one of the hotspot in the world. He opined that we should be aware of our environment. Before starting any projects like Tipaimuk project, capital project, etc that involved large areas of land,  proper environment impact assessments should be done to weigh its positive and negative influence on the environment, he added.
He also suggested to avoid any initiations that could negatively affect the environment in the name of development as far as possible. Expressing apprehension on the depletion of water bodies from various places in the state, he stated that it was very unfortunate. The state is reeling under acute water shortage, considering the problems of water scarcity in the state and other related issues, the Environment and Ecology Wing, Government of Manipur has initiated a project of reclaiming water bodies for preservation and conservation of several water bodies that are considered to be depleting and shrinking at an alarming rate, he further said. He said that altogether 21 numbers of government lakes for reclamation and preservation of water bodies were identified.
Various resource persons also spoke on the environmental and climatic issues resulted from over exploitations of natural resources. The function was attended by various school children, guests and officials of EEW.

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IMPHAL, May 22: The secretary of Manipur Legislature’s Forum on HIV and AIDS (MLFA) and MLA of Oinam Assembly Constituency Dr. I Ibohanbi  expressed that HIV/AIDS policy of the state which was instituted in 1996 has become outdated.
The MLA was speaking at a One- day Constituency Covention on HIV and AIDS held at Namdunlong Baptist Church near Khuman Lampak today.
The convention was attended by MPCC president G. Gaikhangam and MTDC chairman and the MLA of Henglep constituency T. Manga Vaiphei and UNAIDS state coordinator Sushil Huidrom. Ibohanbi further stated that there are many programmes which are aimed at the benefits of persons living with HIV/AIDS.
To revised the HIV State Policy, a draft review has been prepared with consultation of Manipur Aids Control Society. The draft review will be brought to the attention of the state assembly and hopefully a new state policy will be passed. He also mentioned that to facilitate detection of HIV syndrome, the state govt. has also plans to purchase machinery to installed in all the district hospitals of the state. This will save, afford and facilitate the affected persons in the far flung districts.
Speaking as chief guest G. Gaikhangam stated that the means to control the HIV pandemic lies within the public and how informed they are about the virus. In the globalized world one has to refrain from stigmatizing the affected persons as HIV positive status can be compared with a person having diabetics or high blood pressure.
He said that with proper care and medication one need not die due to the affection of HIV prematurely.  He mantains such awareness programme as higly beneficial to the public in spreading awareness, and such through programme the public thus can understand the means of protecting oneself from being affected.

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By Amar YumnamManipur is right now facing some veritable issues relating to the development and the management of her capital, the Imphal city. The development issues relate to the environmental (dust, mud and similar pollutions; the noise pollution is yet to enter the thinking of the people of the land), improvement of the existing logistics and infrastructure and amenities, and efforts towards installing new facilities. The management problems are those relating to traffic, clustering of locations and social impact issues of the improvement and development activities.
Impressive Yes: The recent interventions affecting changes in Imphal city are impressive in so far as they relate to improvements of facilities and creation of new amenities.  They are impressive because, for the first time in any development activity in living memory, there are signs of application of mind and social and engineering design commitments in these.
Here we may recall some basic roles of an urban area. Urbanisation in any social context should be a basic foundation for modernisation and technological change. This should also serve as the place for interaction and integrity among the different segments of the population. While endeavouring to play these roles, the basic requirement is not to outgrow itself in which case the possible negative characteristics would outstrip the positive externalities of urbanisation. Once such a stage reaches a critical point, the city becomes a centre of crime and place for absence of rule of law difficult to re-establish governance. In other words, a city can grow only up to a level where it can sustain itself in terms of normal conduct of business, interaction of people and interchange of ideas and provision of access and amenities without compromising on the level of comforts. To all these, we now have a twenty-first century dimension to urban governance, which relates to security; the city should be such that ensuring security and restoration of security atmosphere without much loss of time if once disturbed by terrorist attacks  can be affected.
The recent developmental interventions, post the flyover, indicate efforts to cater to all these requirements of a city. The fiasco, historical and social, of the Imphal flyover seems to have sunk into the minds of the Imphal city planners, and they now seem eager to remedy this by a new set of rationale interventions. To this extent, the new developments and changes are to be lauded.
Management of Changes:   While the developmental interventions are to be appreciated as stated above, we must categorically point out that the management of the changes betray absolute lack of application of mind and streaks of non-democratic orientation. We now seem any instances of putting the cart before the horse in introducing the changes, and a kind of conviction where the police forces are being projected as the sole means for development orientation. Unfortunately, we fail to appreciate why so many violations of the new rules are being committed by the vehicles of uniform personnel and vehicles of ‘very important persons’; all these are dangerous portends for a democracy and instances which can ultimately jeopardise all the good intentions accompanying the recent interventions. If we are effecting urban development, we must also be aware of the global lessons in urbanisation.
We understand that any kind of development intervention would generally have the impact of benefitting some and disturbing the interests of some others. Accordingly, it is important that the governance of the impact be such that the negative impacts be minimised, if not neutralised, and at least conditions are generated for the adversely affected people to bear the temporary adversities without much hardship. But this cardinal lesson seems to have been missed out by the city planners and administrators. One instance-exemplar of the lack of management is the case of the street vendors. It is true that all now existing and those who would be emerging in the future cannot be accommodated in the existing city centre. The clearance of the city centre from their presence is right, but the timing is absolutely wrong. As mentioned above, the street vendors would definitely have to bear the cost of inconveniences when forced out to a new place. However – given the historical, social and economic role of our women- the policy makers should have been alive to the necessities for addressing the adverse impact these women would face when forced to move to Lamphelpat. Before forcing them out to Lamphelpat, all the accesses should have been put in order in the first place, but it is quite the contrary. A marketplace is one where both sellers and buyers can easily access and interact. This fundamental principle has been violated to the core. Further, this has negatively affected in the second round the markets in the greater Imphal areas which were earlier dependent on bulk morning purchases for retailing in the rest of the day. One can easily imagine the kind of bitterness and negative impact these must have generated.
Another instance is the case of traffic management. For the new non-entry and non-parking regulations to be sustainable and thus have lasting effectiveness, it is important that we have a clustering and then zoning approach to the city. This way, we could generate a kind of labour-intensive activity atmosphere in the city while not jeopardising the present approach. Once again, the will has been imposed, and the security agencies have been pressed into a cause for developmental intervention.
Final Comment: In fine, we would definitely like to say that the governance of development in the land and for that matter anywhere needs to be aware of the impact management dimensions of the needed interventions. The lack of this understanding is particularly marked in otherwise good urban interventions in Imphal today post-the flyover. Further, we should now be shedding the entrenched impact of the long existence under the army law where everything is to be controlled by the forces in uniform. What is important in a democracy and thus sustainable is the establishment of a system which people would spontaneously imbibe. Further this system would give no exceptions, as is wont in Manipur to the security forces and the very important persons, for once exceptions are maintained in public domain, the future of democracy is at stake.

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