Manipur News

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Imphal, Feb 11: National integration tour team consisting of 30 students and 02 teachers from villages of Senapati dist arrived at Maram after 11 days of inspirational tour to Siliguri and Kolkata. The students visited Birla Planetarium, Victoria Memorial, Indian National Museum and various other places of interest. The students also had the opportunity of meeting GOC Bengal Area, Maj Gen K S Kumbar, VSM.
The tour had been flagged off by Maj Gen Binoy Poonnen, VSM GOC, Red Shield Div in presence of Brig A K Narula Cdr 59 Mountain Brigade on 30 Jan 2012.
The NIT was flagged in join 09 Feb 2012 at Maram by Comdt 5 AR. On interaction with the students it was heartening to see the kids with such enlightened and enriched experiences.
Twenty children and four teachers who were on the National Integration Tour organised by 5/9 Gorkha Rifles of Loktak Brigade under the aegis of Red Shield Division visited Rashtrapati Bhawan, India Gate and Raj Ghat where they paid tribute to the Father of Nation.

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/national-integration-tour-2/

Imphal, Feb 11 NNN : Various NGOs say 25,822.22 hectares of forest land of Manipur will be affected by the controversial Tipaimukh Dam which will also lead to felling of 7.8 million (around 90 lakh)) trees and bamboos, and such action will not only have serious impact on community livelihood and survival but also exacerbate species and induce climate change impacts due to destruction of absorption capacity of Green House Gases (GHG).
A one-day Review Meet on Tipaimukh Dam was held at the Manipur Press Club here Saturday, jointly organized by Committee on Land and Natural Resources, Citizens’ Concern for Dams and Development, Action Committee Against Tipaimukh Dam, North East Dialogue Forum and the Sinlung Indigenous Peoples Human Rights Organizations.
At the discussion, the civil bodies affirmed, “Our rivers, forests, wetlands and lands are the sources of our life and not for plunder, invasion, and that we will strive to defend and protect the integrity of our land for survival of the coming generations.”
Calling upon the Government of India and the Government of Manipur in a draft resolution, they say they are concerned about the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) involving the Government of Manipur, National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) and Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam limited (SJVNL) on April 28, 2010 which was reaffirmed on October 22, 2011 without the prior consent of the indigenous people of the State as well as all the people, who are likely to be affected by the proposed dam, in Mizoram, Assam and further down in Bangladesh, it demands urgent revocation of the above MoU.
The resolution says the NHPC and SJVNL, companies which are likely to be involved in the project have extremely poor environmental, social, accountability and human rights records from their previous projects such as Teesta V (Sikkim) and Loktak Project (Manipur).
The NGOs also demanded for the revocation of the Environment Clearance granted by the Ministry of Environment and Forest, Government of India on October 24, 2008.The resolution further urges both the Central and State governments to conduct Holistic Impact Assessment on socio-economic, environmental, cultural, health and human rights impacts likely to be caused by the proposed dam.

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/tipaimukh-dam-to-affect-25822-hectares-of-land/

Imphal, Feb 11 NNN: Not content with the alleged fraudulent issue of about 1000 postal ballot papers regarding the Government employees, mostly personnel of security forces who are electorates of Wangkhem and Heirok constituencies of Thoubal district, Manipur People’s Party (MPP) today requested both the Election Commission of India (ECI) and Manipur Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) to cancel the postal ballot papers issued to them during the recent Manipur polls.
In a letter to ECI, MPP president Dr Nimaichand Luwang who was in fray from Wangkhem constituency seat said around 1000 postal ballot papers were issued to the Government employees, mostly police personnel who are electorates of 32-Wangkhem constituency and 33-Heirok constituency though they were not assigned any election duty on the polling day January 28.
He said the employees included VDF, SPO, Manipur Rifles and IRB personnel, Home Guards and Manipur police personnel, adding most of these employees did not apply for issue of postal ballot papers in Form-12 and that this means the applications were forwarded by the officials of the State police department by forging their signatures.
Many of them came to their respective polling stations to cast their votes on the polling day, but found that their postal ballot papers were issued against their names without their knowledge and information, the MPP president mentioned in the letter.
It has also been detected that more than 400 postal ballots which failed to mention names of the electorates were dispatched through the post that were addressed to Superintendant of Police (Thoubal), Commandant Chandel, Commandant Tamenglong, Commandant Imphal, Superintendent of Police (SP) Imphal, CO Home Guard, Deputy Superintendant of Police Thoubal, DTO Itanagar etc., the letter said.
Many postal ballot papers are now lying at the office of Thoubal SP and other offices since the identities of electorates are not known,
Luwang further mentioned in the letter and alleged it is apprehensive that there was a grave conspiracy and malpractices committed by some unscrupulous officials either in the State police department or the district election office.
He further requested the ECI to look into the matter and enquire in order to cancel all the postal ballot papers issued to the Government employees.

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/postal-ballot-cancellation-demanded/