24 hour bandh cripples CCpur

Lamka, Feb 18:The 24 hour bandh call by the All Tribal Students Union Manipur in all hill districts of the state parylysed Churachandpur where it was fully supported by the Churachandpur District student’s Union (CDSU).

The bandh commenced from midnight of February 17 and lasted till midnight of February 18.

Owing to the band normal life in the district came to a grinding halt adversely disrupting the daily business activities and education especially in the district head quarter. All business establishments including shops remain shut and no vehicles were seen plying during the bandh period.

Educational institution remained closed besides that the turn out of employees in the government offices was recorded almost nil.

Earlier during the morning there was report of smashing of vehicle windshields by suspected bandh supporters. However no major bandh related violence was reported till the filling of this report.

It may be recalled that ATSUM resorted to imposing the bandh to mount pressure on the Government in fulfilling their charters of demands. Apart from the bandh earlier it had launched certain forms of agitation which included closure of schools, Government offices etc.

ATSUM has been demanding rectification on issues like inadvertent evading of the Rules of the Manipur Reservation of Vacancies in Post and Service (for SC and ST) Act, 2007 and its objection to 200 point roster as against the earlier 100 points. Extension of the service of contract basis teachers in the hill districts for one academic year, discrimination of STs in the promotion of leading firemen, the issue of chief engineer in Public Health Education Department (PHED) etc.

ATSUM has also been demanding the revocation of the State cabinet decision of posting senior Manipur Civil Service officer as executive director of DRDA without due consultation with Hill Areas Committee of the State assembly. It has termed the cabinet decision as devoid of any “rationality and justification” and has demanded reverting it back to the earlier way wherein the concerned deputy commissioner of the districts were the executive director as prescribed under the central guidelines.

~ Imphal Free Press

Panchayati Raj system in entire NE

AIZAWL, Feb 18 – The Centre has proposed to introduce Panchayati Raj system in the Northeastern region. This was disclosed here today by a Central team currently visiting Mizoram to study functioning of local governments.

The Central team on ‘Decentralisation of governance in the local bodies’ has expressed its idea for implementation of Panchayati Raj in Mizoram by converting the village councils into Gram Sabha and reservation of one third of the seats for women. The visiting team also informed Mizoram Government officials that the acts and rules on Panchayati Raj system would be reviewed and amended to suit the existing laws in force in the region on local governments.

The five-member Central team headed by additional secretary in the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Dr Hrusikesh Panda arrived here on February 16 to study feasibility of decentralised governance in local bodies. Other members are DoNER joint secretary Dr JP Sharma, Ministry of Home Affairs joint secretary (NE incharge) Shambu Singh and Prof MP Mathur from National Institute of Urban Affairs.

Panda said the proposed reservation for women in local bodies were not merely for equality, but due to the need for participation of women in administration.

~Newmai News

YMA to keep watch on Bru rehab

Aizawl, Feb 18: Even as the Centre has sanctioned Rs 9.7 crore for expenses on the resumption of repatriation of Bru refugees from six Tripura relief camps, Young Mizo Association (YMA), the apex Mizo organization, on Thursday said it would keep a close watch on the entire process.

"Appropriate action will be taken if Bru refugees, who are not bona fide residents of Mizoram, are among those repatriated. The YMA will watch and wait till the repatriation process is over," YMA central committee president Lalchungnunga said. "YMA has evidence that the Brus had left the state in 1997 following orders issued by a Bru organisation," he added.

~TNN

Separatists in NE, J&K misuse Facebook: Anthony

New Delhi (Feb,18): Defence Minister AK Antony on Thursday acknowledged that separatists in North-East and Jammu and Kashmir are “misusing” social networking sites and said “proper corrective action” will be taken.

Responding to queries of media persons on “misuse” of social networking sites like Facebook by the separatists, the Minister said, “We know people are misusing these but at the same time we are not going to take any hasty decision.”

He refused to comment on limiting the access of social networking sites in the states where the services are being misused. “We will see, nothing has been decided now,” he said

Antony said “proper corrective action” will be taken after ascertaining the whole issue.

Of late, the separatist forces in J and K and North-East were found actively using social networking sites to spread their propaganda. With their membership increasing with each day, they also initiate online discussions and post their comments on issues like stone-pelting and others.

Antony will on Friday will start a two-day visit to North-East where he will visit important military stations in Assam, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur.

He would also take stock of infrastructure development programmes in the forward areas.

~ PTI

Education B Class in NE : Educationists

Shillong, Feb 6: It may come as a shock but it is a fact and the world outside the North East region has just proved it.

In the recently concluded 17th Annual National Conference of Indian Colleges Forum where principals of 40 institutions from all corners of India came together, some were of the opinion that the universities here in the region are Grade–B, including the students.

 Principal of Nagpur University, Dr. Munghate, while speaking to NNN, stated that the education system followed in this part of the country was outdated. Hence, when people move out of the region, they are beleaguered and become equivalent to Grade-B students.

 He defended the statement saying that students here were talented and can prove their merit by sitting through entrance examinations.

 Dr Munghate blamed the stringent and outdated ways of functioning and teaching in universities here and the poor infrastructure.

He said the system of marking was what gets students down in grabbing the best colleges and opportunities. The biggest problem with students going to mainland India after completion of their education from here is the percentage. Due to stringent marking patterns set by universities and boards here, scoring 80 percent is considered achievable only by the best. But their counterparts in mainland India have been scoring percentages averaging 90 percent and many scoring 95-98 percent.

 Talking on the same line, Dr. Munghate agreed that though students here are talented, if they are unable to sit for entrances exams due to less percentage, talent is wasted as they miss out on the best universities.

Nonetheless, some damage control is being done by the reserve quota system for SC/ST students in many universities outside, he said.

In his university, he said there is quota reserved for students from the North East, but lamented that there still is a large chunk of students without their dreams being able to be fulfilled.

In order to check the marking system, Dr Munghate advised developing the capacity of the pattern of exams. “The entire system of education here should change altogether,” he said.

He maintained that there was a richness of educational levels here, and highlighted the necessity of having add–on courses like gardening and tourism. This, he said, will increase the field of opportunities for students so that when they move out of mainstream courses, they will have more avenues to venture into.

“Four hours a day is sufficient to educate students, while in practical matters, five hours is enough,” he said.

Dr Munghate also said that as transportation in the region is difficult owing to the terrain, universities here should change their timings and reduce the total class house.

“Just like how in major cities outside the North East where students get to choose between morning, afternoon and evening shifts while making use of additional time left in the day to get themselves employed to generate money and finance fees, students here should also get similar opportunities. This will also restrict them from moving out of state in search of better opportunities,” he said.

However, on the topic of marking and judging students purely on the basis of mark sheets, he graded students here as falling under Grade–B category while stating that those in Maharashtra come out with higher percentages.

Also taking a tough stand against some private universities, the heads of institutions stated that such universities were merely money making machines, refraining from adding anything further

~ Newmai News