July 13
Court direction on PMGSY road
ITANAGAR, Jul 12: Responding to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by people of Krema Pao and Kamke villages on alleged misappropriation/misuse of fund, the Itanagar Permanent Bench of Gauhati High Court, Naharlagun has directed the government of Arunachal Pradesh to stop further payment to the private executing agency for construction of PMGSY road from 64 km point of Seppa Chayangtajo to Krema Pao until disposal of the PIL.
The PIL alleged that the quality of the road and materials used for construction
were below par quality that led to premature damage of culverts and washing away
of the road at many points. Further, the road has been re-
The Court further directed the state government to show appropriate reason as to why payment of Rs. 2 Crore has been made to the private firm in spite of the alleged poor road works.
The court accordingly ordered notices to state government and seven other respondents including the firm on the PIL returnable within 3 weeks.
Training on oyster mushroom production
ITANAGAR, Jul 12: Altogether 55 farmers including rural youths and women participated in a daylong training programme on Oyster Mushroom production conducted at Chameling village under Hayuliang circle of Anjaw district on July 10 last.
Organized by KVK Anjaw, the key objective of the training was to train the participants on Oyster Mushroom production.
Subject Matter Specialist (SMS), Plant Protection, Senpon Ngomle, coordinator of
the training programme highlighted the importance of Oyster mushroom and made a detail
presentation on Oyster Mushroom cultivation, post-
SMS, Social Sciences, S Peter Singh said that Mushroom cultivation has become a profitable business with the produce fetching good returns in the market because of the rise in demand for edible mushrooms, particularly oyster mushrooms, owing to their nutritional benefits.
SMS, Horticulture, Rebbeca Eko welcomed the participants and briefed the gathering about the importance of organising this training.
BJP meet at Sagalee
ITANAGAR, Jul 12: The Karya Karta Sammelan of the 15th Sagalee Assembly Constituency BJP Mandal Unit was organised yesterday at Sagalee Community Hall.
More than 300 party delegates, well wishers, local leaders, GBs and public attended the programme.
The party Sadasyata Abhiyan, Maha Sampark Abhiyan and Prashikshan Abhiyan were the main highlights of the day.
BJP Mahila Morcha President, Padmeswari Jamoh, BJP state unit, General Secretary, Dominic Tadar, ST Morcha President, Tadar Akap, Mahila Morcha General Secretary, Bengia Yayang, Papum Pare District President, Tana Hali, District General Secretary, Techi Tempo and Sagalee Mandal President, Sangbam Ujer addressed on various issues ranging from making the party stronger at the grassroots to schemes initiated by the BJP led NDA govt at the Centre in the daylong programme.
Senior leaders of Sagalee Nabam Rebia former ZPM, Tana Tedi, Nabam Epo, Nabam Nyara, GC Taba State ST Morcha General Secretary, and the party unit of Papum Pare district also attended the meeting, stated a BJP release.
Malaria awareness camp
Karda Natam
DAPORIJO, Jul 12: A Malaria awareness campaign was organised by Anchal Samiti Member,
8-
ASM Tatuk Ligu advised the villagers to keep their surrounding neat and clean, remove clogged water and maintain proper drainage system in order to avoid mosquito breeding.
He distributed long lasting insecticidal net (LLIN) to 180 villagers.
Dr. T Nirin spoke about the causes of vector borne disease like Malaria, Japanese Encephalitis and Dengue to the villagers. He also advised them to use mosquito net while sleeping to avoid mosquito bites.
Villagers including PRI members and other officers and official team from medical department were present in the camp.
Agriculture store-
Correspondent
RUKSIN, Jul 12: An agriculture store house of a farm house was reduced to ashes and machineries, food grains and properties worth lakhs of rupees lost in a devastating fire that broke out at Kemimukh in East Siang district at about 15 km east from Ruksin on Thursday morning. The cause of the fire is not yet known.
The owner of the store house has claimed that many agricultural implements, including
pumping set, spray machines, utensils and fertilizers were destroyed in the fire
besides huge quantity of stored maize-
However, there was no report of any loss life in the fire mishap.
The victim has reported the fire accident to Sille-
The properties lost or damaged in the fire are being assessed.
Drugs awareness campaign
AALO, Jul 12: The 9th leg of awareness camp by Mother's Vision to create public awareness on danger of drugs and make them aware of the ways to check the drugs menace was conducted at Hiker Gumin yesterday.
Chairperson of the NGO, Jumde Yomgam Gamlin while highlighting the ill effects of drugs abuse appealed to the parents and guardians to talk to their children about the perils of drugs abuse and help build a drugs free society. The chairperson also called upon the residents to remain vigilant and report any suspicious case to local police. DIPRO
Keep city clean
ITANAGAR, Jul 12: The Arunachal Clean and Green Mission conducted two days clean drive programme within Capital Complex on 11th and 12th July. They claimed that likeminded youths, business community, students etc took part in the drive. Further they have appealed to the citizens of capital to play their part to keep city clean and do not depend only on municipal and urban department.
SCCZ holds training programs for teaching faculty
ZIRO, Jul 12: Saint Claret College Ziro (SCCZ) is all ready to welcome the new academic year with a flurry of academic training programmes for the teaching faculty and the incoming batch of students.
In the preceding week, SCCZ held a Faculty Orientation Program (FOP) and a Staff Induction Program (SIP), and is currently running four certificate courses in Tourism Management, Video Production, Communicative English, and Personality Development. These events have become annual fixtures at SCCZ before the start of the academic session.
The Faculty Orientation Programme focused on the theme “Empowerment and Creativity” inviting the staff to work towards personal and team empowerment. Unique features of the current year’s FOP were the input sessions by a parent and two students.
In the Staff Induction Programme (SIP) held yesterday, the newly appointed staffs
were informed about the History, Vision, Mission, Values, and Objectives of the institution
as well to be acclimatised with the institutional culture and procedural formalities
of the profession. All the new faculty member were guided through the process of
drafting one’s own personal mission statement and hierarchy of core values, which
are expected to be shared with their students. The college will end the preparatory
phase with an ICSSR-
News Impact
Gas leakage in Kharsang Oil Field controlled
Itanagar, Jul 12: Experts from the ONGC today controlled blow out of gas from well no. 60 of the Kharsang Oil Field in Changlang district, officials said.
"The engineers and experts from ONGC in Assam's Sivsagar district ultimately managed to stop the gas leakage at around 12 PM on Sunday", DGP S Nithianandam, quoting Changlang district SP, said.
The blow out of gas in the well occurred on June 30 last creating a fear psychosis among the local residents.
The local administration evacuated around 2,000 people living in five villages in the vicinity of the oil field, while in a few villages residents were debarred from cooking for days out of fear of sparking fire and explosion.
A state level monitoring and vigilance committee under geology and mining department chairman Toko Anil, who visited the site on July 5 last, in his report had recommended the state government to review extension of lease period of Kharsang Oil Field in Changlang district to Geo Enpro Pvt Ltd for its incompetency in dealing with exigencies and crisis. PTI
Rain causes extensive damage to road network in Longding
ITANAGAR, Jul 12: Torrential rain during the last one month has caused extensive damages worth crores of rupees to the road network in Longding district.
Urging the State Government to take immediate remedial measures to restore road communication
in the district, Kanubari BCC general secretary Tinglem Wangjen, in a statement informed
that the all-
The time-
The 19-
Kanubari sub-
Another important PMGSY road to Chubam circle connecting three villages is likely
to suffer major landslide near Chajem that would require re-
Budget to be path-
ITANAGAR, Jul 12: Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Nabam Tuki today said the state budget to be tabled in the Assembly on July 15 next, is going to be a path breaking one with main thrust on employment generation and skill development for the unemployed youths.
"The state government will give special emphasis on employment generation during the year which will be known as 'year of employment and skill development," Tuki said.
He said maximum departments, particularly the economic services, industry and tourism, would create self employment schemes for the youth during the year, besides subsidised schemes for the unemployed engineers for establishing local manufacturing units and industries.
The Chief Minister, who also holds the finance portfolio, would place the budget after the NITI Aayog agreed and asked the state to go for a tentative budget of around Rs 10,200 crore for the financial year.
"But the financial allocation will not be less than Rs 12,000 crore this year," Tuki said.
He said priority in the social sector, specially education and health, would be also another major thrust area in the budget along with infrastructure development projects. PTI
Choked Hollongi river posing threat to RCC bridge
ITANAGAR, Jul 12: The RCC Bridge over river Hollongi is on verge of collapse due to choking of the clearance below the bridge due to siltation.
The river is choked due to rapid deposition of soil and sands that the bridge may collapse any time, informed Balijan Circle Youth Association (BCYA).
The siltation is reportedly caused by rampant and reckless dumping of soil into the
river. According to BCYA, soils produced from earth-
It is also feared that a slight rainfall will trigger stagnation and water logging leading to artificial flash flood in the downstream areas which may endanger life and property of people from both Arunachal Pradesh and adjoining Assam areas.
The Association urged the PWD (Highway), and the M/s T.K. Engineering & Consortium
Pvt. Ltd. which is the executing agencies of the 4-
BCYA also urged the executing agency to expedite the construction work so that the said project undertaken is completed within the extended time frame given by the authority for better road connectivity in the state.
Complete restoration of Itanagar water supply soon
ITANAGAR, Jul 12: The complete restoration of Itanagar water supply project is expected to be completed within a week’s time, said a departmental release while adding that the rationing of available water supply within the township shall continue till such time.
Despite tireless efforts made by the department, the restoration works could not be completed in the last eight days with heavy toll endured by the workers and officers on account of sickness and injury, a press statement added.
The water of Itanagar water supply project (Ph-
Minister interacted with the site engineers and workers on the various hurdles and practical difficulties encountered during such restoration works.
He emphasised on timely and qualitative works to deter further reoccurrence of such damage to ensure uninterrupted supply of water to the consumers of the Capital township. The Minister further directed to identify landslide prone areas susceptible to regular breach and damage to be strengthened before onslaught of monsoon to avoid major catastrophe. The Minister later donated an amount of Rs. 20,000 (Rupees twenty thousand) only towards medical expenses of the sick and the injured workers.
APLS distributes prizes to winners of essay competition
ITANAGAR, Jul 12: Prizes to winners of essay competitions conducted among school students to mark the 75th birth anniversary of Lummer Dai were distributed in the 70th session of Arunachal Pradesh Literary Society (APLS) at J N State Museum here today.
Chairing the session, APLS President Y D Thongchi, applauded all the winners, who were honoured with Khada, certificates and books.
In his speech, Tokong Pertin, general secretary APLS complementing all the prize winners exhorted them to study hard and become good citizens of the country. Highlighting the contribution of Lummer Dai in the field of literary and journalism in Arunachal Pradesh, he informed that some of Lummer Dai's valuable works are also underway for translation in Hindi and English, which will be beneficial for the readers who earlier could not get the taste of his literary creations.
On the occasion, the prize-
Batem Pertin, Director Research and also an executive member of APLS, Hage D Appa, a prominent actor from the State attended today's function.
Lompuk Paksok, father of one of the prize winners while expressing his appreciation to APLS for providing an apt platform for the student community said that he was delighted to witness the proceedings of APLS and requested its members to organise such competitions in near future also to benefit the student community.
‘Harung Loku’ festival of Phothung Nocte
[ Komna Moidam ]
Times during festivals are a period during which we revisit our deeper understanding of our valued and age old tradition and culture so that our knowledge and experiences do not fade and erode away with complexities of modern civilisation and influx of foreign culture that is growing faster than we think. Tirap district is home to nine different but yet cohesive ethnic groups of Noctes viz. Hakhun, Khapa, Hawa, Domlak, Phothung, Jope, Sanniyak, Laju, and Dadam. The word ‘Nocte’ is a broader term enveloping these nine groups. They breathe and survive under this broad term with equal level in every aspect of traditional and cultural activities. The word ‘Nocte’ or ‘Nocta’ which means people or village people represent wider and broader terminology encompassing the nine groups. Phothung Noctes are mostly settled in the lower belt of Tirap district under Soha Circle, 25 km from Deomali. Some of them have settled in parts of Changlang District and countable numbers in Assam neighbouring Tirap district.
The life of Phothung Nocte revolves around the nature and agriculture cultivation
system. Even rituals and ceremonies are deeply rooted to the nature and agriculture.
Hence, festivities revolve around the activities of agriculture and nature. Before
Harung Loku begins preparatory rituals and offering are made to appease all benevolent
gods for peaceful and successful celebration of the festival. As such ‘Haa’soom’
which is the biggest and the oldest religious ritual is performed a month before
Loku is celebrated by Phothung Noctes. It is purely agricultural ritual enacted to
appease the Haa’waa Jongban (Village God) for prosperity, high yielding crop and
well being of the people in the village. On this day all the male folks go for Haa¹soo,
Hatoo-
Vital and first step towards opening of grand celebration of agricultural festival,
Harung Loku, is offering of meat and rice beer to ‘skulls of enemies’ (that has been
preserved for years since the time of head hunting practice) at Rang -
The term Harung Loku is wider in itself. Harung (ha=land, rung=fertility, ‘Lo’ means
exhibition and rejoicing of the materialistic things (which includes the harvested
crop, art, craft, beads, traditional costumes and etc.) and ‘Ku’ means festival.
Therefore, Harung Loku in real sense is the celebration of their local wealth and
resources. Loku is celebrated consecutively for four days. The first day of Loku
is ‘Soom-
The loku festivity begins with a big ritual as mentioned above followed by lot of thumping dances and songs. The song narrates the might of the Lowang (Chief) and call upon every other clan to come and rejoice the wealth and crop they have gain. The youth cracks jocks and tease each other (especially young girls and boys). They exchange songs praising as well as ridiculing each other. It is a day to rejoice oneness, it foster love, unity and brotherhood like any other festival of other tribes. This is an occasion where Nocte enjoy much needed break from busy schedule of the daily life routine. It is also a day of reunion. It emanates an aura of light and life. Rich show case of traditional attires and abundance of foods, crop and drinks are made. It is also the time to maintain and celebrate their much demanded resource ‘salt’ which is produced naturally from the Suumthame (salt springs).
Thus, Harung Loku is celebrated among the Phothung Noctes of Soha with much pomp and gaiety. Though it is celebrated in its own characteristic appeal but does not deviate from the main Loku festival which is larger part of all Nocte society. (The Article is based on field research subject to further correction and investigation. The contributor is a Ph.D Scholar, Arunachal Institute of Tribal Studies, Rajiv Gandhi University)
Cong CMs may boycott PM’s meet on land bill
New Delhi, Jul 12: Congress chief ministers are unlikely to attend a meeting convened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 15 in an apparent bid to take the steam out of government's moves to push the controversial Land Bill in the Monsoon session of Parliament beginning next week.
Party sources gave indications to this effect when asked if its Chief Ministers could
be considering a boycott of the meeting in the backdrop of Congress coming out strongly
against the measure, dubbing it as "anti-
The Prime Minister is scheduled to meet chief ministers to discuss the controversial land bill in the latest attempt to break the deadlock over it.
It will be the second meeting of the governing council of the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog), about a week before the monsoon session of parliament is set to begin.
Congress is ruling in nine states namely Kerala, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarkhand, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram.
Trinamool Congress leader and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has already expressed her inability to attend the meeting and if Congress Chief Ministers stayed away, it would mean the absence of 10 of the some 30 Chief Ministers at the crucial meet.
Banerjee has written to the PM on her opposition to the land acquisition bill and
her inability to attend the meeting due to pre-
In fact, Congress sources said that the party Chief Ministers have written identical letters to the Parliamentary Committee going into the measure informing it that their state is opposed to the provisions of the Bill and would like "no amendments" to be to made to the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013.
They have held that the amendments go against the interests of farmers and take away the rights of tribal communities and gram sabhas.
The Chief Ministers have pointed out that the 2013 Act had been passed unanimously
by Parliament in September 2013 after over two years of nation-
They have told the Parliamentary Committee headed by senior BJP leader S S Ahluwalia
that most of the recommendations of the department-
To build consensus, the government has introduced several amendments to the bill and formed the parliamentary committee to examine compensation clauses and resettlement of farmers.
Though the panel was asked to submit its report at the beginning of the upcoming session, it has requested more time.
Government has been determined to push through the land bill that seeks to exempt land purchases for certain industrial, housing and infrastructure projects from requiring the consent of 80 per cent of landowners.
The monsoon session is expected to be a tumultuous one, with contentious land, labour and GST bills on the table, and simmering political scandals threatening to disrupt proceedings.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi had led a march of leaders of 14 opposition parties to President Pranab Mukherjee during the Budget session to protest against the bill.
Rahul Gandhi has been agitating against the measure and had addressed a rally of farmers at the historic Ramlila grounds on the eve of the second phase of the Budget session. PTI
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All rights reserved.
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Welcome statement
North Eastern states continue to battle problems after problems. Successive union
governments have failed to properly address the problems crippling the region. The
underdevelopment has forced youths to take up arms. On the other hand in the name
of counter-
Now Amnesty International India has also come out in support and demanded for early repelling of AFSPA from NE region. The Amnesty International India stated "The Justice Verma Committee set up to review laws against sexual assault had said the AFSPA legitimizes impunity for sexual violence." The statement of Amnesty international comes just a day after Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh talked about possible scaling down in central forces' deployment in the North East. The statement of home minister has come in right time and should be welcomed by everyone. Excessive presence of military personnel in the region often leads to conflict between civilian and security forces. The withdrawal of AFSPA and scaling down of security forces will be big step towards normalizing the situation in NE region.
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Introspect a little and try to follow Gandhian principles
Dear Editor,
This is in response to the news report titled “Mahatma Gandhi will always be relevant: Governor”(July 10).
As far as theory is concerned, the Governor is absolutely correct. But practical reality is just the opposite.
Mahatma Gandhi once remarked “Recall the face of the weakest man whom you may have seen and ask yourself if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him. Will he gain anything by it? Will it restore him to a control over his own life and destiny? Will it lead to ‘swaraj’ for the hungry and spiritually starving millions?”
But, unfortunately, the country which bestowed the title of the ‘Father of the Nation’
on him, designated his birthday as a ‘national holiday’, erected number of statues
of him and garland it on his birth and death anniversary, has consciously seen to
it that all the ideals of the Mahatma got consigned to oblivion. Thus the country
erupts with joy and “pride” when Chandrayaan-
Again the money allocated to the Commonwealth Organising Committee far exceeded the
amount of the total Bhopal package(for the survivors of the 1984 mishap)! After all
wasn’t our “national prestige” solely dependent upon the successful hosting of Commonwealth
Games! In this dismal scenario the have-
As far as individual Indians are concerned, they feel no qualms in squandering money
on luxuries and throwing lavish parties on marriages or birthdays, without a thought
or care for the millions of hungry and destitute. The rich and middle class of India;
that include the mandarins of film, sports, politics and media world as well; have
become such a heartless lot that it feel no qualms in asserting shamelessly that
the whole country has at last gone to sleep peacefully on night after learning about
an overhyped demi-
And by taking resort to all types of violence, be it poll-
Thus, it is high time the State and the people introspect a little and try to follow Gandhian principles before singing paeans of the Apostle of Peace.
Yours,
Kajal Chatterjee,
Kolkata
Monitoring public money
Dear Editor,
In recent times a positive attitude towards Elementary education has been observed in terms of reflection of concerns in regards to RTE in the state through various print and electronic media of Arunachal Pradesh.
I personally feel that the concerns of the stakeholders, particularly the parents and guardians of Elementary school students would be more forceful and directional if they have the factual information of various schemes under Educational flagship programmes like SSA and RMSA. Because the major concerns relate to RTE, which is being implemented through Directorate of Elementary Education and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, the stakeholders need to know how much is being funded by the MHRD for various schemes and interventions.
I would share the funding pattern of Residential schools and KGBV under SSA in terms of costing per students. How much does SSA give to a student of Residential school and KGBV?
1. Maintenance of the student @ of Rs 1500 per student per month.
2. Maintenance of the school @ of Rs 750 per student per annum.
3. Stipend of the student @ of Rs 100 per month.
4. Medical security of the student @ of Rs 1250 per student per annum
5. Teaching Learning Material @ of Rs 100 per student per annum
6. Miscellaneous @ of Rs 750 per student per annum
7.Electricity/water charges @ Rs 1000 per student per annum
8. Capacity building @ of 300 per student per annum.
Are our children studying in the Residential Schools and KGBVs getting their due share? If they get their rightful share, they would become responsible citizens tomorrow or else the world tomorrow would be a place worse than it is now. All stakeholders, particularly the parents/guardians of children studying in Residential Schools and KGBVs must ensure that the children get their due share for their overall personality development by invoking RTI and monitoring the fund utilization of Residential schools and KGBVs. Monitoring public money is a positive trend that needs to be encouraged.
Yours,
Yitem Pertin
Naharlagun
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