Month: March 2013

IMPHAL, Mar 6 NNN: All Manipur School Management and Development Committee said it has identified the Manipur Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) department, the Manipur state Authority and the School Management and the Development Committee (SMDC) as predominantly responsible in deciding the future fate of SSA in Manipur.
According to SMDC president Horngam Keishing and its geneneral secretary M Worthington, recently the committee had met the Union Minister (MHRD) and the key officials of Elementary Education and literacy department under the Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD) who assured the SMDC convincingly that SSA Central guidelines shall be upheld at any cost and even emphasized on community participation, decentralization and enforcing of SSA funds as a separate entity aloof from the state fund.
“Thus our prime efforts prioritizing on safeguarding the future fate of SSA in Manipur has been achieved,” Horngam and Worthington stated.
It is noteworthy to mention that SSA contributes a substantial portion in developing the Education system all over India and Manipur state is no exception.
“We should make maximum use of SSA opportunity instead of indulging in activities that may place SSA at risk and put a permanent stop to the smooth fund flow of SSA from centre,” the SMDC leaders asserted.
Thus the State Mission Authority Manipur, the Manipur State Authority and the SMDC community hold equal and joint responsibility of deciding the fate of SSA in Manipur.
Horngam Keishing and M Worthington then warned each SMDC to properly monitor and implement its responsibilities henceforth.
“We have learnt of haphazard formation of SMDCs widely prevalent incongruous to the guidelines and many formation of SMDC are found to be engaged in fraudulent management and implement of SSA funds and schemes manipulating community mandate. This office shall not tolerate and Condon such activities in the future as failure on the part of the aforementioned three entities can jeopardize the fate of our children in Manipur and take a heavy toll on our children’s Right to Education (RTE) out of in competencies.
“While rigid on our stance on safeguarding the SSA regular norms and guidelines, we welcome suggestive inputs from any section including the influential section for working out modalities and mechanisms that encourage inclusive co-ordination in the interest of further enhancing the efficiency and productivity of SSA implementation overall,” the SMDC leaders added.
But erratic officials and fraudulent individuals shall be booked and punished under the law and SMDC intent to bear all odds to effectively check on the discrepancies and anomalies area of SSA functioning in Manipur state, Horngam Keishing and M Worthington stated.

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/future-of-sarva-shiksha-abhiyan/

Imphal Mar 6 UNA : Manipur government was estimating its annual plan outlay for the year 2013-14 at Rs 8457 crore, said Manipur chief minister on Wednesday in the house of the Manipur Assembly while presenting a vote on account for amounting to Rs 3002, 98, 56,000 to enable the government to discharge its responsibilities and to meet all essential expenditure during the first four months of 2013-14 fiscal year.
While presenting the vote on account, Ibobi said that pending finalization of plan size for 2013-14, the full budget for the year would be presented in the House after the plan size was finalized.
Because of the non-finalisation of the state?s plan outlay for 2013-14, the provision under plan were tentative the chief minister said, informing that the state government was estimating receipt of Rs 8457 crore, which is an increase of 3 percent over 2012-13 of Rs 8187 crore.
The revenue receipts were estimated at Rs 8057 crore and capital receipts at Rs 493 crore. The revenue receipt and capital recepts under plan were tentative since the plan financing scheme for 2013-14 has not yet been finalized. Therefore, he said these estimates would change after the plan outlay for the year 2013-14 was finalized.
He said that the total estimated of state’s own tax and non-tax receipts assumed in the budget estimates were Rs 492 crore and Rs 430 crore respectively. Receipt from share in Central tax has been kept at Rs 1569 crore as per the Central Budget 2013-14 and non-plan grants from the Centre, including the non-plan revenue deficit under the 13th Finance Commission Award, was estimated at Rs 1447 crore.

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/cm-presents-plan-outlay-of-2013-14/

IMPHAL, March 6: The Joint Action Committee for Khullem Tondon killing has demanded Manipur Government to arrest and punish the culprits involved in the alleged rape and murder case of the 16-year-old girl on Wednesday.
Hundreds of protesters from Maklang village in Imphal West district congregated at Keishampat Lairembi Community Hall and there they planned to organise a rally and submit a memorandum to the Chief Minister.
However, Lamshang constituency MLA W Brajabidhu arrived at the site and pacified the demonstrators. Then, five representatives of the JAC along with the MLA submitted the representation to the Chief Minister O Ibobi late in the afternoon.
The culprits should be punished and chargesheet of the alleged rape and murder case be filed at the earliest, the memorandum demands.
A full-fledged forensic laboratory should be set up in the state with more experts, it further demands.
At the same time, the protesters at the community hall staged a sit-in protest and also organized a meeting which was  participated by several leaders of women civil organizations.
They held placards reading “Put the culprits behind the bar for life,”Police should file chargesheet promptly and “Hang the culprits,”
Tondon, a resident of Luker Mayai Leikai, Maklang village was mysteriously found dead in a rivulet in Imphal West district yesterday.
Police had said they believed she was raped and murdered. Her phanek (loincloth) was found lying in an open field over 100 metre from the spot where her body was found.
She had gone missing after she left home before three days after telling her family that she was going to her grandmother’s house at Maklang, her relatives had said.
Some villagers found the body floating in the Haorang Turel, a rivulet just before noon.
Several cut marks were seen in her head, lips and face.

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/jac-demands-punishment-of-killer-rapist/

IMPHAL, March 6 NNN: Abducted Nitin Masih from Madhya Pradesh was released by his kidnappers on Wednesday morning after over three months of captivity.
Narrating the ordeal to reporters at the quarter of Kakching constituency MLA Y Surchandra in Imphal, Nitin said on November 24, 2012 he was kidnapped by some unknown persons from his wife’s parental village Kakching Pallel Lamkhai in Thoubal district in Manipur.
The kidnappers came in a van while he drove a scooter when suddenly they abducted him at gun point, he said. He was going to his father-in-law’s paddy field in the village on that day, he added.
He was put inside the van and then the kidnappers injected him with a drug which caused him unconscious. Then, he was inside a dark room when he came to his senses.
However, the kidnappers gave him proper food regularly during the over three-month long captivity, he said.
He said they spoke Hindi fluently and he always told them he was only a bread-earner of his family that he could not pay any kind of ransom. But, they told him that he was not the person they wanted to kidnap.
“They gave him tranquilizers most of the time so he slept nearly all the day,” he said.
On Wednesday morning, they took him out of the place in a van and released him by the unknown kidnappers near Kangpokpi along National Highway-2, Nitin Masih added.
He then came to Khuman Lampak in Imphal in a truck and from there he went to one of his friend’s house near Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences (JNIMS) here. Later, he talked to his wife over phone and then came to the MLA’s quarter, he added.
Nitin, an x-ray technician by profession, is a native of Indore in Madhya Pradesh. His wife is a Manipuri.

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/kidnapped-man-released/