July 28
IMC takes charge of burial grounds
ITANAGAR, Jul 27: The Itanagar Municipal Council (IMC) has taken over the charge of all matters related to burial grounds, electric crematorium etc from UD Department, informed Bokar Basar, Chief Municipal Executive Officer of Itanagar Municipal Council (IMC).
IMC Chief Councilor Higio Aruni accompanied by her deputy Kipa Babu and others visited burial ground at Nirjuli which is lying in a dilapidated condition for want of maintenance.
IMC has already started renovation work of the burial ground on a war footing and
also decided to re-
The IMC chief councilor has appealed to the people to bear with inconvenience caused to them.
Unidentified body found
ITANAGAR, Jul 27: An unidentified male body was found near roadside of Doimukh-
The body of the person aged about 30 years with non-
Meanwhile, a suo motu murder case has been registered with case no. 32/302 IPC and investigation launched. The body has been kept at RKM Hospital mortuary for 72 hours for identification and other proceeding.
DK Memorial Badminton Tournament in Sept
ITANAGAR, Jul 27: Arunachal State Badminton Association (ASBA) will conduct the second Dorjee Khandu Memorial State Open Badminton Championship 2014 from September 12 to 15 here.
The tournament will be held for both Boys and Girls singles and doubles under 10, under 13, under 15, under 17, under 19 and open categories.
The state team for the zonal event to be held on October 16 at Guwahati would be selected on the basis of the performance of the players in this tournament. The state players ranking would also be maintained.
This time too, the tournament is fully sponsored by Minister for UD, Housing, Town Planning etc. Pema Khandu.
In an executive meeting of ASBA here yesterday, it was resolved that this tournament
would be a regular event in ASBA’s calendar and would be conducted every year. It
was also resolved that ASBA would approach the state government to make the tournament
as state event for conduction through grand in-
Make JE vaccines available: Org
ITANAGAR, Jul 27: Education and Cultural Development Society (ECDS) has urged the State government, particularly Health Department, to make Japanese Encephalitis (JE) vaccines available at every government hospitals to prevent further spread of the disease.
While expressing disappointment over lack of good healthcare facilities at Arunachal State Hospital for which patients suffering from serious ailment are referred to hospitals outside the state for treatment, ECDS also urged the state government to provide facilities like MRI and CT scanning in the lone state hospital as poor can’t afford the cost at private hospitals and laboratories.
It also urged the health department to issue strict order to all the pharmacies instructing them not to sell life saving drugs and other medicines at high rate taking advantage of situation.
RRWS felicitates meritorious students
ITANAGAR, Jul 27: To encourage the students for their academic excellence, the Riika Riibla Welfare Society (RRWS) has felicitated meritorious students belonging to Riika Riibla clans of Lower Subansiri and Kurung Kumey district, who have excelled in this year’s class X and XII examinations conducted by CBSE, in a function at Siddhartha Hall here yesterday.
The students felicitated include, Neelam Ranim, Lishi Moriam, both class ten, Tassar Ama, Licha Tain, Tar Munu, Neelam Nan, Neelam Atum, Neelam Ania, all class twelve.
The students were given cash incentive as one-
Neelam Mama, who cleared the Arunachal Pradesh Public Service Commission’s Engineering Examination 2013 and stood third position, was also felicitated on the occasion.
Congratulating the meritorious students, Director, Higher & Technical Education Dr Joram Begi appreciated the effort of the society to encourage the students for their academic excellence. He urged parents and guardians to guide their children properly at right time which can help them achieve the desired goal in life. Dr. Begi also stated that the society can play a major role by giving counseling to the students to help them choose their future career.
Divisional Forest Officer Neelam Nedo, who is also the president of RRWS highlighted the aims and objective of the society and hoped that such programme will inspire the younger generation to achieve success in life.
Dr Dukhum Raina, Medical Superintendent, Arunachal State Hospital, Nich Tadar, Executive Engineer (PWD), Neelam Teji, C O, Naharlagun, various officers and officials, businessmen, social workers, parents and guardians attended the function.
Medical camp
ITANAGAR, Jul 27: A two days free medical camp was organised from July 26 at Seijosa
administrative circle, East Kameng by Ghora Aabhe Society and supported by Divisional
Forest Officer (DFO) Pakke Tiger Reserve. During the free medical camp, Hepatitis-
The Health camp was conducted by Dr. Libi Nyorak (MD), Dr. Jego Ori, MS ENT from State Hospital Naharlagun, Nepon Das, Lab. Technician from Guwahati and Dr. Tana Ananto, Community Health Centre, Seijosa along with his medical team.
Yoga workshop by AoL
ITANAGAR, JULY 27: The Art of Living (AoL) has announced a 5-
The workshop will teach popular and profound yogasans like Surya Namaskar, Kapalbati and many other pranayamas and meditation techniques.
The package includes rejuvenating asanas, powerful pranayamas, serene meditations and practical diet tips.
Water for Pakira
Yachang Tacho
ZIRO, July 27: Facing drinking water scarcity for last two decades, people of Pakira village under Kudung Barang area of Old Ziro had a reason to rejoice as Hija ZPM Dani Buker inaugurated a community well locally called Sukung today.
Though Pakira village is located very near to main water reservoir at Old Ziro but people were facing water scarcity for last many years thanks to apathy of the authority.
Exhausted after waiting for the concern authorities to fulfill their demand for several years, people of the Pakira village initiated by its Village Welfare Committee have on self help basis constructed a community well. The land for the well was voluntarily donated by Taru Kojing.
In his inaugural speech, while appreciating people of the village for constructing the community well on self help basic, the ZPM asked other villages, with similar problem to learn from Pakira village.
ZPM assured to provide a separate water tank for Kudung Barang area within a year so as to address the problem. He also disclosed that the proposal for construction of alternate source of water (well) for entire Kudung Barang areas has been reflected in the AOP which is likely to be considered shortly. However he appealed the Village Welfare Committee to cooperate with him in locating the water source and also cautioned them not to interfere when the contractor takes up the construction works.
Taku Donyi, GB of the village, while narrating the pain they suffered in the last
20 years, especially in winter season when they had to collect water from faraway,
said that though they have contributed sufficient numbers of pipelines voluntarily,
the department could not provide the connection. In most of the election campaigns,
the candidates would commit to fulfill our single-
News Impact
‘Drug addiction among Arunachalees posing threat to national security’
New Delhi, Jul 27: Security agencies have alerted government of an increasing and alarming trend of opium addiction amongst the tribal border population of Arunachal Pradesh which stands to threaten "national security" in this area, already prone to insurgency and incursion attempts from neighbouring countries.
Narcotics enforcement and intelligence agencies keeping a tab on the activities of illegal drugs in the eastern border areas of the country have recently shared a detailed report in this regard with the Union Home Ministry underlining the fact that the menace may put under threat "the very existence" of the tribal population of the state.
A report by the Central Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) accessed by PTI states that "large tracts in this state are now being cultivated commercially by the rich and influential people for extraction of opium gum and trafficking of the same."
It cautioned that if the worrying trend is not checked promptly, "the situation may take a serious turn not only affecting national security" but also having an adverse impact on the health and existence of the various tribes inhabiting the remote and inaccessible areas of Arunachal Pradesh.
The report adds that during a recent visit of security and anti-
Security agencies reported that such a development in the border districts was alarming as their location was "quite sensitive" owing to their geographical closeness to India's borders with Myanmar and China.
Sources privy to the development said that while there was a widespread illegal cultivation of poppy since many years in districts like Tirap, Changlang, Lohit and Upper Siang of the border state for usage in medicine and for religious purposes, the last five years have seen this menace spreading to other untouched areas giving rise to drug addiction amongst the locals especially the tribal folk who do not have access to education and welfare policies of the government.
The agencies told the Home Ministry in their latest report that opium and heroin addiction has spread to areas like Roing in the Lower Dibang Valley and this trend was now threatening the existence and healthy lifestyle of the local tribals.
The report seeks a quick intervention of the central and the state government as
there are "no government treatment and de-
A survey, aided by satellite imagery, by these agencies found out that the illegal
narcotics cultivation was being undertaken in the difficult and inaccessible areas
of the state and hence a strict drive to find and destroy these crops needs to be
initiated with the help of paramilitary forces and special units of the Army deployed
in the area for counter-
The agencies also suggested that massive awareness programmes are the need of the hour here, rather than blanket destruction of these narcotic plants as the tribals are socially, culturally and economically "dependent" on opium cultivation.
The agencies have also recommended that the local forest dwellers should be given guaranteed land rights to discourage the misuse of the land for illegal cultivation of poppy by the tribals themselves or through them by the rich contractors.
The agencies have also suggested that the state government take new initiatives and begin dialogue with local and village bodies so that the very idea of beginning new illegal poppy cultivation in the border state is nipped in the bud.
Opening of de-
CAG reveals APGT Act shortcoming
ITANAGAR, Jul 27: Performance Audit Receipts under Arunachal Pradesh Goods Tax (APGT) Act, 2005 has revealed numerous shortcomings, according to CAG report.
The APGT Act, though taken from a uniform format of VAT adopted throughout the country
had significant deficiencies. There was no process to identify unregistered dealers
or carrying forward the list of dealers from the Repealed Act. The system in place
for registration, survey, assessment of returns, audit assessment was either non-
The Department had almost non-
Concerned authorities failed to deduct tax at prescribed rates from contractors/suppliers,
leading to non/short deduction and non-
Check Gates were ill-
361 unregistered dealers sold goods valued at Rs. 26.50 crore and evaded tax of Rs. 1.59 crore, which the Department failed to detect.
The percentage of assessments by Superintendent Taxes varied between 0 and 2.69 per cent during the period of Performance Audit.
10 dealers concealed turnovers of Rs. 12.23 crore and evaded tax of Rs. 1.58 crore, for which interest of Rs. 2.13 crore and penalty of Rs. 1.59 crore were also leviable.
635 dealers, who were registered under the repealed Act, remained undetected and unregistered under the APGT Act.
In the absence of a mechanism for monitoring receipt of returns, Superintendents
of Taxes (STs) could not detect non-
19 dealers claimed input tax credit of Rs. 27.39 crore, which was irregularly allowed by STs.
Four industrial units irregularly claimed exemption of VAT of Rs. 7.93 crore (including
interest) prior to 23 January 2009 and non-
The Department failed to prefer claims of compensation of VAT, resulting in loss of revenue of Rs. 15 crore.
Application of pre-
Failure of the State Government to raise demand for payment of royalty of Rs. 21.42
crore from the Central Government led to non-
Overview of State Public Sector Undertakings (SPSUs):
As on 31 March 2013, the investment (capital and long-
Working SPSUs showed overall adverse working results during the six year period ending
2012-
The losses of SPSUs were mainly attributable to deficiencies in financial management,
planning, implementation of projects, running of operations and monitoring. A review
of the latest audit reports of the CAG showed that working state SPSUs and Government
Departments -
ITANAGAR, Jul 27: Five dwelling houses were reduced to ashes and properties worth lakhs of rupees lost in a devastating fire that broke out at Libu Bene under Kamba ADC headquarters of West Siang district today morning.
However, there was no report of any loss life.
While informing this, All Galo Students’ Union (AGSU) and Hirik Hiru Students’ Union (HHSU) have appealed to the district administration to provide immediate relief to the victims and assess the properties lost or damaged in the fire for providing relief to the victims. They also appealed to like minded NGOs, individuals and organizations to come forward and extend helping hands to the victims in this hour of crisis.
Meanwhile, AGSU and HHSU have expressed disappointment over non-
“The fire or the extent of damage caused by it could have been either averted or minimized if there was a fire brigade at Kamba,” lamented both the students union.
“We have been demanding for establishment of a fire station at Kamba since many years. Several representations and memoranda have been submitted to the authorities concerned. But our demands fell on to deaf ears,” rued both the students union. Chief Minister Nabam Tuki had earlier reportedly assured AGSU to establish fire stations at all ADC HQs, they claimed and, reminded the Chief Minister to fulfill his assurance.
Other demands included infrastructure development at DPGC, Kamki, early notification of Lower Siang district headquarters, conversion of District Hospital Aalo to General Hospital, revamping of Nigmoi fruit processing centre and review of all MOUs/MOAs signed for hydro power projects at Yomgo and Siyom river basin.
ITANAGAR, Jul 27: The media fraternity of Arunachal Pradesh expressed gratitude to Chief Minister Nabam Tuki for including construction of media housing colony for both print and electronic media in his budget which was presented in the State Assembly Saturday.
Arunachal Press Club (APC) President Chopa Cheda, in a press statement today lauded Tuki for his generosity in extending help to the growing media in the state on behalf of the state media fraternity.
“Chief Minister Tuki has proved his concern and love for the scribes by incorporating
the housing colony, the much-
Cheda also appreciated the chief minister for giving priority to the economic and social sectors besides thrust on border area development, women and youth empowerment in his maiden budget for the current fiscal.
Terming the budget as ‘pro-
APC Chief Adviser Pradeep Kumar Behera said, “Though former chief minister Dorjee
Khandu was the first to assure fund for a media colony proposed by APC, but it was
Chief Minister Tuki who had not only announced additional fund but also included
it in the current budget re-
While the CM deserves kudos, but the media as a whole has to reciprocate by working with renewed vigour for the voiceless to make them the true partners of development as was once dreamt by Gandhiji, Kumar added.
Bugun Liocichla in critically endangered list.
KOLKATA, Jul 27: The latest International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) list shows that the newly discovered small colourful bird Bugun Liocichla from Arunachal Pradesh is now "critically endangered", as compared to the earlier safer status.
Over 170 species of birds in the country are threatened, with eight new species added to the 2014 Red List prepared by IUCN.
The eight species of birds newly added to the threatened list include the woolly-
Relentless habitat destruction is regarded as the reason for decline in the population of birds, one of the best indicators of environment.
The IUCN prepared its report based on studies conducted by BNHS-
The list shows that a similar situation exists globally with 13 per cent of all bird species on the threatened list.
The total number of species recognised by BirdLife in the 2014 Red List is 10,425.
Among them 140 species are extinct, 4 extinct in the wild, 213 critically endangered, 419 endangered and 741 vulnerable, the IUCN list said. PTI
Capacity building training for SHG members held
ITANAGAR, Jul 27: A four days residential capacity building training for selected
Self-
The programme aimed at building capacity of the SHG members on accounts and book keeping, better group management and making them well aware about the aim and objective of NRLM.
Addressing the inaugural session of the programme, Sanjiv Tirkey, State Programme Manager (SPM) briefed about the objective of National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) and its salient features.
During the four days session, resource persons Eliza Boro, Popy Marak and Mridula Devi from Mahila Shakti Kendra (MASK) explained in details about SHGs, its concept, basic principles, characteristics and stages of formation and growth. They also explained the SHG members about the rules and regulations for better management of SHG, systematic accounting system, maintenance of SHG records and registers.
A practical session on how to make detergent powder making and dish wash was also demonstrated by the resource persons. Another demonstration on making pickles, jam, jelly and juices was also held.
The participants were taken for a day-
Copyright © 2008, The Arunachal Times Publications Pvt. Ltd., Siang House, Sector
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All rights reserved.
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Take step for child safety
News of a child being raped in her own school feels especially terrifying, even to a nation already reeling at reports of sex crimes. In Bangalore it has galvanised the kind of mass demonstrations that Delhi saw after the Nirbhaya tragedy. It's alleged that the rapist is a teacher with a history of child abuse. Why didn't the school properly verify his background? Even more worryingly, how many schools across India are following basic procedures to ensure the safety of our children, their students?
Last year similar kind of rape incident was reported from a private school at Likabali
under West Siang district of Arunachal. The school authorities should make proper
check before hiring teachers. Although government schools get more flak, the fact
that the Bangalore child rape took place in an upscale school underlines how the
issue of children's safety cuts across class. But the Bangalore school where the
child rape took place has refused to take responsibility. The reason this is possible
is that our entire education system swings between two unhealthy extremes. On the
one hand, a license raj inhibits growth of new outfits. The absence of competition
means schools that currently exist can get away with anything. On the other hand,
there is little auditing of schools' security and other standards -
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Crossroads of development
Dear Editor,
Arunachal Pradesh must be one of the most blessed lands with its natural resources,
strategic positioning and its people’s unique and rich culture. With 82 per cent
forest coverage, it is one of the top bio-
In the early decades of our independence, Arunachal’s strategic positioning proved to an obstacle for its development. As aptly described by former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh, the paradigm adopted by the Central Government for the Seven Sisters of India was ‘culture, security and politics’. This kept Arunachal Pradesh out of the ‘development paradigm’ until the ‘80s. Infrastructure sector was the worst hit sector of all. Security concern overrode all other elements in policy framing for these States.
It is ironical that Arunachal with three international borders is yet to have vibrant
open border trading posts. No sustainable economic model has been introduced after
the ban imposed by the Supreme Court on timber-
To add to the woes, allegations of illegal coal mining and involvement of insurgent
groups caused long closure of mining and other allied activities. Anti-
It is important that the Centre in consultation with the State Governments and stake holders especially the project affected people, sort out all the issues to iron out a balanced and sustainable solution to enable early execution of Hydropower projects. Above all, the people of Arunachal need to understand the importance and positive potential of Hydropower projects and extend its support to the Government.
To complement the above efforts, it is important that re-
A comprehensive and demand driven model of tourism has to be developed. The unique
cultural traits and customs that Arunachalis have been preserving for ages have to
be made the USP of our tourism industry. Entry permits may be further segregated
from tourist permits for easy accessibility and technology may be introduced to consolidate
the effort. The major tourist areas have to be sensitised and educated on tourism
industry and tourist-
Arunachal stands at an important crossroad of development in its history and the ‘smiling CM’ has to grab this opportunity and led from the front in ushering a new era of development, peace and prosperity and bring smile to people’s faces.
Yours,
Sam Tage,
IP University, Delhi
Let humanity prevail
Dear Editor,
This is in response to the news report titled “NE govts should pressurise Centre to protect NE people” (July 25).
There lies an immediate need of imparting a spirit of tolerance in the Indian society and inculcating the sense of India as a centre of diverse culture, language, race and religion. Actually there lies something extremely wrong with the Indian education system which might be capable of helping the students to churn out glamorous careers, but fails to broaden their general knowledge and vision. And less said about imparting moral education the better, else we would not have witnessed such imperialistic and racist attitude prevailing in the society.
Stress on moral education should be an urgent priority which will teach the future of the nation to rise above petty barriers of language, caste, religion and country and accord supreme importance to humanity as a whole. And just like the civilized countries of the West; acts of discrimination, physical abuse and passing lewd comments on the basis of one’s linguistic, religious or any other divisive credential should not be tolerated a bit and the offenders need to be awarded exemplary punishment.
Suppose the text books and media will continue to ignore all the greatness of North-
Yours,
Kajal Chatterjee
Kolkata
Diversify the economy
Dear Editor,
This is in response to the article “Precarious financial condition of the state and way forward” by Dr. Hari Krishna Paliwal.
In my view Dr. Paliwal’s opinion is one-
Precarious financial condition of the state is government’s own doing. Consecutive government has been reckless in fiscal spending. Government, politicians, bureaucrats and technocrats all should take full responsibility of the current financial state. Austerity should start from public service spending. For me way forward to the current financial situation are government agencies itself in the form of:
• Accountability – looking at project implementation, how many projects have been
wasted so far is mind-
• Punctuality-
• Cut back on government official’s spending-
• Reduce post retirement ex-
• Decrease corruptions by officials and politicians-
The other way forward to current financial state in my view is diversification of economy, not just hydropower development. How much fund allocation was made by government past and present to improve other areas of economy? What about horticulture and agriculture, animal husbandry, medicinal and aromatic plants, fisheries and echo tourism? This was already pointed out by Dr. KK Bhattacharjee in Reader’s Forum. We should be looking at windmills, as our state is a hilly and mountainous region with lots of potential power generation by windmills. It is less likely to have environmental and ecological impact and certainly no displacement of community.
I hope that Dr Paliwal is not associated with power developer; if he is then he should declare conflict of interest before writing such articles.
I sincerely think that Dr.Paliwal, being the former CS of state has best interest in our state’s financial affairs.
Yours,
Dr Bojir Perme
Melbourne
Australia
Waiting for the full benefit
Dear Editor,
Through the columns of your esteemed daily, I would like to add my view on the news item “MGNREGA fund embezzled, BDO, PRI leaders under scanner”.
I request the concerned District Administration to have a thorough look into the matter and guide the people on any kinds of schemes. This type of corruption reminds us of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s observation that only one percent of fund reaches the desirable from 100 percent disbursed. The poor and ignorant people are waiting for the day when we get the benefit from the Centre without having to worry about a penny deducted.
Yours,
Atto Hasang
Paraline, Ziro
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