Day: July 5, 2015

IMPHAL, July 5: Kalakshetra Manipur`™s acclaimed play `Pebet`™ has been invited to the prestigious International Theatre Conference 2015, jointly organised by the International Federation for Theatre and Department of Theatre Arts, University of Hyderabad.

The International Conference is to be held from July 6 to 10 at Hyderabad University. `Theatre and Democracy`™ is the theme of the conference. Pebet will be showed as part of the major performances on July 7. Heisnam Sabitri of Kalakshetra along with the director Heisnam Kanhailal will give lecture cum demonstration on the following day.

The conference will be attended by around 300 delegates from different countries of the world along with 75 delegates from India. During the conference renowned scholars like Prabhat Patnaik, Partha Chatterjee, Elaine Aston and Anuradha Kapur will give their presentations as key note speakers.

Kalakshetra Manipur troupe has left Imphal for Hyderabad today to take part in the conference. It may be mentioned that `Pebet`™ since its production in the early period of 1970s has staged more than 70 times till the present date. The play has also travelled to international festivals across the globe in cities like Cairo and Tokyo.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/07/pebet-play-to-be-staged-in-international-theatre-conference-2015/

IMPHAL, July 5: The Secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, Anurag Thakur inspected the state of the Manipur Cricket Association at Luwangpokpa Cricket Stadium today.

The BCCI secretary who is also an MP of the BJP, was received at the Imphal Airport by a BJYM team.

Later, accompanied by national general secretaries of the BJP, Saynthan Basu (administration) and Doni Nich (in-charge Manipur) visited Luwangsangbam to meet the official of the MCA. The MCA and BJYM together submitted a memorandum to the visiting dignitary urging him to help establish an international standard Cricket Stadium in Manipur.

Later, Thakur launched a BJYM Manipur mission called `Explore Manipur` to explore the tourism potential of Manipur.

This will be a month long drive to identify tourism spots in Manipur and to assess the tourism potential of Manipur, and put on the map of world tourism, he said while attending a function `Youth for future` at the office of BJP Manipur Pradesh.

Thakur said that very soon a BCCI meeting on the new area drive is going to be held at New Delhi and he assured he would bring up the matter of MCA and various other issues of MCA submitted to him today.

He promised that within a month all problems face by the MCA in popularising cricket will be resolved. He further assured maximum support will be extended to MCA, including construction of cricket infrastructure in Manipur.

Thakur further said that BJP has converted the Congress`™s Look East Policy to Act East Policy, indicating the party`™s intent to engage with this important issue. Funds will be sanctioned for the purpose, and the NDA government under the leadership of Narendra Modi is very serious about this.

Manipur is well known for its talent in sport, Art and Culture and tourism, but the last 13 years of rule by the Congress has suppressed all these potentials he said. However the NDA government will undo all the wrongs and give added emphasis to the development of the NE region of India, he said. Without developing the NE region, India can`™t developed, he added.

He asked to make the state free from insurgency and drugs. He also said the mission launched today is also with this in sight. He said in his next visit to Manipur, he will be a tourist coming along with his friends and family, to enjoy the beauty of the state.

He said he is dismayed to learn that more than eight lakh youth are unemployment in Manipur. He said developing tourism can help ease this problem.

He said prolong rein of the Congress in the state inhibited the development of the state but now with the BJP`™s return to power at the Centre things are poised to change.

He assured that if the BJP government comes to power in Manipur, 24X7 hour power supply, good road connectivity and infrastructure amongst many others will be assured for the people.

The BJP state president Th. Chaoba also spoke at the function and agreed with the central leader that tourism can create jobs for the unemployed youths of the state. Tourism cannot end at Hapta Kangjeibung and needs to reach out to all corners of the state, he added.

He criticised the Congress government in the state for its inability to start construction of National Sport University even after one year of the central government sanctioning it. He also alleged that the present government is taking keen interest only on developing Thoubal.

O Malesh president BJYM Manipur Pradesh, M Asnikumar general secretary administration and national general secretaries Saynthan Basu and Doni Nich were also present at the function.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/07/bcci-secretary-inspects-manipur-cricket-association-promises-help-to-promote-cricket-in-the-state/

IMPHAL July 5: The Sunday congregation at Chadong Baptist Church today sang mournfully and soulful today, perhaps for the last time as water level continues to rise and flood their homes, and perhaps by next week the church too would be underwater.

The fasting prayer list includes praying for strength and ability to adapt and rebuild when they are forced to migrate to a new site home.

Some have already moved to the nearest towns while the remaining await their fate in dread.

Lamlai Khunou villagers had built two bridges this week following the submergence of the bridge in the approach road to their village. Without these two bridges, Lamlai Khunou village and Chadong village would have been completely cut off from the rest of the world.

It takes approximately 50 minutes to walk to the bank of Chadong village from there and wait for one`™s turn in the only boat manned by amateurs. It takes another 10 minutes to row through the vast stretch of water and reach Chadong village.

Till date no government representative had come to assess the pitiful situation and assist our rehabilitation. Instead the Chief Minister has wrongly informed the Assembly during the ongoing session regarding our plight, said a member of the Mapithel Dam Affected Villagers Organisation (MDAVO).

As we row to Chadong village, the visible houses appear like the floating huts in Loktak.

Inside the village, people are seen loading their food grains and household goods and shifting to the higher grounds of the mountain. By the water edge, children were playing with new flocks of grasshoppers.

They talked about the rats in their dwellings at night and the fear of other reptiles. The school campus has become a militarized zone after the Manipur Rifles and Manipur Police shifted to the two school buildings since July 1.

Barracks have transformed the new Junior High school into a fearful sight. One of the classrooms has been converted into a kitchen otherwise it may have been the midday meal kitchen.

They said their erstwhile shelter in the vicinity was dismantled and shifted by the house owners so they moved in to the new school buildings. The government has not provided any water transport for men in uniform to transport their ration so they share the only boat of the villagers, which was donated by Centre for Social Development for the affected people.

A reliable source informed that two boats from Fishery and Loktak Development Authority were approved by the government. But even after a month of submerging the only connecting bridge, the arrival of the boats seem to be still tangled in bureaucratic procedures.

While documentary film makers and media persons continue to document the anxiety and anger of the affected people, hordes of people irrespective of community flooded the banks and littered the environment. They came by car, bike, auto rickshaw and even by hiring bus.

Most of them said they are exploring the new landscape. It thus spells a huge tourist potential which needs to be managed in a better way.

As for Riha Village, the government has not specified anything on community water rights after the construction of the dam nor have they survey the river banks or settle community owned grazing grounds and private farms/standing property.

We are losing all our traditional ownership rights over our river and resources, lamented Tuithung Lunghar, a villager of Riha.

He said, “™We are the people whose livelihood is dependent on the seasonal products of the forest and the river resources. Yet these rights are not settled till date`™`™.

Another affected villager adds, “™We feel so helpless as citizens in pursuing through the right course. As the government is trampling over even a stay order of the court, what else is left for us to pursue? We have collectively knocked on every possible door of the concerned departments and authorities`™`™.

The government has merely compensated for the paddy fields and completely ignored the repeated petitions on river based livelihood including our fishing rights. Soon they will expect us to pay for this water that belongs to us, he ridiculed.

The villagers have various relationships with the river besides the livelihood angle. Christian rituals like Water Baptism are held in the river and fasting prayers are hosted on the banks. Recreation and social activities like annual picnic cum fishing of peer groups and village bodies are held on the river beds. Such traditions of fishing and feasting will be history now, narrates a women community leader woefully.

Tangkhul Shanao Long and Tangkhul Katamnao Saklong also visited the surrounding villages today to take stock of the situation.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/07/chadong-villagers-reel-under-untold-miseries-in-absence-of-govts-intervention/

IMPHAL, June 5: After the continuous spewing of ashes and smoke from an expanding crater in a swampy area of old Wahong village, which many suspect to be volcanic activity, spreading fears amongst villagers at Shitru area of Ukhrul District, official of the Disaster Management Department sent a team of experts joined by some more officials of the Ukhrul administration, including the SDC Jessami, to the spot.

The combined team, it is reported, has reached the spot at Wahong and examined the soil in the area. The team has collected soil samples as well but after preliminary examination said it can`™t be volcanic activity. More test will be conducted in laboratories, an official said.

The official said the phenomenon is unlikely to be volcanic activity and therefore there is no cause for the villagers to panic. The 6-member expert team from the Disaster Management Department and the five officials from SDO Jassami inspected the area very thoroughly and returned today.

It may be mentioned that DC Ukhrul had ordered for restriction of entry to the area recently.

It is further reported that according to the villagers they have sighted smoke coming from the swamp area first at Shitru in the month of April, 2015. However villagers thought to be charred ember remains of pine root from a wild fire.

The area is at the tri-junction of Manipur and Nagaland along the Myanmar border. It is also reported that a villager Wisdom Vashum, had accidentally stepped into the crater and received severe burn injuries on his left leg, sending fears to the villagers that some unnatural phenomenal was unfolding.

Another villager, Standhope Vashum, reported that he saw three holes of one square foot diameter and these holes were clearly visible and were spread around a circumference of 60 feet. The water from a nearby pond too is reported to taste very sour.

Following the reports, the Deputy Commissioner Modak Hrisheekesh Arvind already sounded the alert to the higher authority for intervention and investigation. The DC also directed SDO Jessami to immediately look into the matter.

The team rushed to the spot on Friday responding to appeals by the villagers.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/07/state-disaster-management-team-collects-soil-samples-from-mysterious-smoking-craters-at-wahong-village/