Manipur News

16 Assam Rifles under the aegis of HQ 10 Sector Assam Rifles of HQ IGAR (S) organised an interactive session with the Village Headmen and Secretaries of Tangkhul Villages at Shangshak with an aim to increase the level of cooperation and mutual understanding between Assam Rifles and the local populace. During the session, exchange of thoughts regarding the introduction of community hall development projects, provision of solar lights and computers for schools were put fwd. A total of 105 people from the neighbouring Tangkhul villages participated and it was followed by a musical session, light refreshments and lunch. The villagers were glad as they got an apt forum to project their points and also recommended more such kind of events to be organised in the future. In another endeavour of reaching out to the local populace, 18 SIKH of 9 Sector Assam Rifles under the aegis of IGAR(S) conducted ‘SHRAM DAN’ alongwith the managing committee of ISKCON Temple, Imphal and the locals from the nearby villages. The exercise was aimed to assist the temple committee in the preparation for the forthcoming festive season which shall witness a number of programmes being organised.

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/ar-reaches-out/

IMPHAL, Sep 12 NNN : Indian bamboo industry is constantly threatened by China as the country exports as much as 260 loads of raw incense sticks to India each day, said South Asia Bamboo Foundation, Guwahati on Thursday.
SABF, Guwahati founder executive director informed this while participating in the opening function of a three-day seminar on “Indigenous Bamboo and Cane Culture in Manipur” at Anthropology Department, Manipur University here.
In his speech, Kamesh said that China exports 260 loads of raw bamboo incense sticks to India on daily basis and this has posed a serious threat to the Indian bamboo industry.
He said in India, bamboo production is still underdeveloped due to stigma and lack of full-time workers and these two factors apart, artisans are undervalued.
China has become a major bamboo furniture producing country in the world today because its artisans are full-time workers and simultaneously it is trying to dominate the world market, he said. He said it is the right hour the Indian Government take steps to tackle this problem especially in NE region that has the 56 percent of bamboo trees grown in the country.
The seminar is being roganised by the Manipur University’s Anthropology Department under the sponsorship of Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya, Bhopal.

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/bamboo-threatened-by-chinese-products/

IMPHAL, Sep 12 NNN : An ideal High School teacher from Manipur is now upset after he failed to claim the prestigious National Teacher Award 2013 due to the laxity of the state Government.
Koijam Tolendro, who is 51-year-old, is a senior graduate teacher at Prajja High School, Lamshang in Imphal West district and a resident of Lamshang bazaar. He was one of the two selected teachers from Manipur who was to honour by the President by conferring the award on Teacher’s Day, September 5 in New Delhi.
Two teachers from every state of the country are chosen for the award which is given on the occasion of Teacher’s Day every year. Ch Nishikanta, Headmaster of Thambalkhong Junior High School was the lone teacher from Manipur who received the award on the occasion of Teacher’s Day, he said.
Tolendro said, “I failed to claim this award since the concerned authorities of the state Government didn’t inform me on time.”
He was talking to reporters at the school when he added that he applied for the award through the state Education Department after recognizing his achievements in the field of teaching.
He said, “He came to know that he was selected for the award on the website of Ministry of HRD, but it was too late.”
Tolendro received the state Teacher’s Award in 2005 and was among the top 10 teachers of the country selected for taking part in the National Level Science Teachers Congress in 2007. He had also attended several national and international conferences.

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/teacher-denied-award/

IMPHAL, Sept 12 NNN : The Naga Peoples Front (NPF), Manipur State unit said that as long as the Manipur government achieves its ‘target’ more re-verifications of census are bound to continue.
The census reports of 2001 and 2011 in respect of Mao-Maram, Paomata and Purul sub-divisions of Senapati district, have been rejected by the state government of Manipur on the ground that there have been abnormalities of population growth which was not possible.
“No matter how many re-verifications are conducted by the Registrar General of India (RGI), the Manipur government will not accept the reports if they turn out to go against its interest. There is a motive of the Manipur government in this connection,” alleged Athuan Abonmai, general secretary of the NPF, Manipur state unit. He questioned whether those people in Senapati district whose names are rejected in the census count be made the citizens of China or Myanmar or any other country if the government really refuses to accept them. Athuan Abonmai also said never ending re-verifications of the census have wasted the time of busy farmers in the district.
Altogether 19 officials of the Registrar General of India (Census) led by deputy director SK Chakarbarti are now conducting the census re-verification task in the three sub-divisions of Senapati district since last week. They are leaving for New Delhi on coming Saturday.
On September 4, in a memorandum submitted to Dr. Chandermolly, director of the Registrar General of India, the NPF questioned, “How many verifications and re-verifications are needed ?”
According to the NPF, even if re-verifations are done hundreds of time, it appears that the Manipur government will never accept unless its target is achieved.
The NPF then said, “It is so ironical to say that the Manipur state government has certain agenda to reduce the population of the said three blocks of Senapati district.”
It alleged that the state government had rejected ‘the physically counted’ census data both 2001 and 2011 and that too after the provisional census data was published which amount to violation of fundamental rights of the concern citizens.
“As the officially verified and accepted figures of the population were rejected by the Manipur government, a joint re-verification of census 2001 and 2011 were carried out by S.K Chakrabarti, DDG and Dr. MC Mehanathan, Director Ministry of Home from May 9-10 in 2011 and found hundred pencent correct,” the NPF pointed out.
“However, the state government has rejected all these genuine data. The state government estimated the population at 40% done randomly. Such discriminatory attitudes of the state government have to be checked. the justifications of high rate population in the hilly tribal areas of those three blocks were clearly made by the concern SDOs and the deputy commissioner,” the NPF stated.
“The Manipur state govenment is determined to reduce forcibly the cityzen’s population of the tribal dominanted Sub-Divisions namely Mao-Maram, Paomata and Purul. It is another form of genocide penetrated to the minority tribal by Manipur government. Tribals in the said blocks are living death in this planet and both the government of India and Manipur government treated them as persona non-grata”, the NPF fumes.

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/census-work-badly-done-npf/

IMPHAL, Sept 12 NNN: Kukis are all set to observe the Kuki Black Day on Friday in New Delhi, Assam, Manipur and elsewhere.
Meanwhile, the Kuki National Front (KNF-N) has cautioned that its dawn to dusk bandh on September 13 marking the Kuki Black Day will be enforced strictly. The KNF-N asked those participating the Kuki Black Day to attached a black flag each in their vehicles and paste print-outs in the vehicles with the distinations written in it.
Meanwhile, the Kuki Students’ Organisation, Delhi said will observe the ‘Kuki Black Day’ on the September 13. The event will be observed with a peaceful and silent candlelight march of over 500 students at Jantar Mantar at 5pm.
“This day of mass mourning marks the commemoration of the inhuman massacre of over 900 innocent Kukis between 1992 and 1995 by the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isaac-Muivah) or more popularly known as NSCN-IM,” the KSO-Delhi said. According to the KSO-Delhi, this incident has been termed differently by different media and writers. “The BBC World termed it as ‘Ethnic Cleansing by Naga Separatist’. CNN had covered it as ‘Genocide’. PhannoujamTarapot in his book ‘Manipur Bleeding’ referred to the episode as Ethnic Cleansing and so does Pradip Phanjoubam in his book, ‘Where the Sun rises when shadows falls.

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/black-day-to-be-observed/