The Arunachal Times - Archives

He also called for deleting or amending laws, which have ceased to be relevant while pruning and streamlining the procedural laws.

Emphasising the need for legal and judicial reforms, the Prime Minister said it was not only the concern of judiciary or the legislature but also the solemn responsibility of the executive and the bar.

Urging all sections to pool their wisdom, knowledge and experience to move forward in this area, Dr Singh said the lead, however, has to come from lawyers.

The Prime Minister reiterated the promise that his government would not be found wanting in tackling problems being faced in the administration of justice.

''We promise to match each step of the Bar and the Bench with two of our own. We will not hesitate to walk the extra mile at every opportunity,'' he said.

The Prime Minister said he has urged state governments to take immediate action to operationalise the Gram Nyayalayas Act, passed by the UPA government in states. The Act after its full implementation would create more than 5,000 courts at intermediate panchayat level thereby bringing justice at the doorstep of the common people.

The Centre has also decided to establish 71 additional CBI courts in different states, he pointed out and said these fast track courts are expected to conduct their business differently and faster than normal courts and thus contribute to reducing the pendency of cases.

''We will continue to augment and improve judicial infrastructure to ensure speedy access to justice for all our citizens,'' the Prime Minister said and added that his government believed that the democracy would have little meaning for the common people unless they were able to secure their basic rights and gain easy access to speedy justice through the instrumentality of law.

''The single most important stakeholder in our legal and judicial system is the consumer of justice. It is to provide relief to him and to meet his legitimate expectations that we should all work together. Let us all reaffirm today that we will make all efforts towards ensuring that the common man -- the ''aam aadmi'' -- will get easy and affordable access to speedy justice,'' he added.

Speaking on the occasion, Congress President Sonia Gandhi said the Centre was providing Rs 1,400 crore to states and union territories for creating Gram Nyayalayas to reduce the present arrears of 2.5 crore cases. The Gram Nyayalayas would provide inexpensive justice to people at their doorsteps in rural areas thereby revolutionising the justice delivery system and bringing meaningful change for the ''aam aadmi''.

Asserting that the UPA government was committed to providing inclusive growth and legal empowerment of people to ensure every citizen gets full benefit of economic growth, Ms Gandhi cited the various legislations like RTI Act, NREGA, Domestic Violence Act and Women's Reservation Bill, passed by the UPA-I and UPA-II governments to empower the common people.

However, all the legislations would have no impact if they were not properly implemented, she pointed out and called for making people aware of their rights and duties.

Stating that ignorance of laws was widespread, she asked lawyers to educate and empower people by creating awareness among them through public debate. Law Minister M Veerappa Moily said efforts are being made to reduce the burden of undertrials in courts by creating world-class courts and Gram Nyayalayas. He stressed the need for creating a national data of lawyers associated with the Congress so that the party could use them in different fields, especially for reforming judiciary.

Congress spokesman and AICC in charge of the Legal and Human Rights Department Abhishek Manu Singhvi in his welcome speech reminded the important role played by lawyers in freedom struggle and Congress formation.

He called for creating a grand vision for future to bring positive change in the society. UNI

Build up Arunachal a knowledge state: HM

ITANAGAR, Mar 27: Arunachal Pradesh should be built up as a knowledge state in which people with real and good education can prosper and contribute to its progress, advocated Home Minister Tako Dabi today while participating in the valedictory function of the 7 day Ghosh (band) Training Programme as chief guest at Balijan Vivekananda Kendra Vidyalaya. Altogether 280 students and 35 teachers from 22 VKV schools of the state, student and teaching community of the township, public and dignitaries attended the glittering function.

‘All out endeavour must be made to instill idea of dignity of labour and promotion of quality education among children to make Arunachal Pradesh a model state’, Dabi said and lauded the excellent display of band, exhibited on the occasion. He called upon them to keep their skill and sense of discipline up. He urged them to aspire for achieving real education instead of so called literacy, as real education means development of all faculties of a student. Development of physical, mental, and spiritual faculty by students and imbibing the ideals of dignity of labour are essential to bring all-round development, he added.

“It need not necessarily be a state with just literate people, full of engineers and doctors and other professionals but a state with people with character, discipline, and good qualities,” he elaborated and called upon the teaching community to impart proper education to students.

Citing the glaring example of Tapi Mra, the famous mountaineer from remote Taksing in Upper Subansiri, who achieved success through dedication and determination, Dabi called upon the students to emulate him and realize their ambitions.

The Home Minister lamented the rising trend of materialistic attitude especially among the youth, adding such tendency would only damage their characters. Recalling the days of school education in the sixties in which the emphasis was on moral and character development along with formal education, he advised them to become honest and useful citizens as they are future hopes and guardians of the state.

Earlier, Parliamentary Secretary, Industry, Nabum Rebia, lauded the VKV organization for establishing excellent educational institutions in the state. According to him, VKV is known all over the country for its excellence, discipline, and character building.

Appreciating the VKV teaching community for rendering yeoman service, he expressed his gratefulness to them and promised to lend his constant support towards further development of the organization in the state.

Deputy Commissioner Bidol Tayeng extolled the excellent display of band by the trainees saying the level of performance can match the best of even the Army and Air Force. He said development of discipline and excellent academic performance are hallmark of VKV.

Kumari Rekha Dave, known popularly as Rekha Didi, Joint Secretary of VKV, informed that under invitation of the then Lt Governor K.A.A.Raja, VKV opened 7 schools in the state in 1977. She assured VKV would endeavour to realize the ideals of man making and nation building as propounded by Swami Vivakananda. Biswas Lapalkar, Secretary VKV Trust, Dr. Tejum Padu, Joint Secretary, Higher Education and Trustee of VKV also participated on the occasion. Lapalkar said education should not only be information accumulation but chiefly be for character building through development of physical, mental and spiritual faculties of students.

Besides large number of public, senior officers including DIGP Tashi Lama, EAC T.Taggu, and authorities of VKV attended the function. DIPR

RGU NSS unit conduct special camp

ITANAGAR, Mar 27: The NSS unit of Rajiv Gandhi University conducted a five days Special Camp at Abo Tani village Karsingsa from March 22 to 26. A total of 67 volunteers along with 2 programme officers took part in the camp.

With the cooperation of the villagers, particularly youth the NSS volunteers planted 200 tree saplings, dug drains. Beside the two major works, the volunteers also conducted remedial classes for the children, also held discussion on various important topics like environment and global warming, life skills etc. The programme was successful due to immense effort and cooperation, specially from Gram Panchayat Member (Chairperson), Head GB and the Youth President of the Village, informed NSS Programme Officer Lijum Nochi in a release.

BJP team assess ground level situation in Indo-China border

ITANAGAR, Mar 27: A five-member central BJP team conducted a three-day study tour to Arunachal Pradesh to assess ground level situations in the Indo-China border areas from March 25 to 27.

The BJP team deputed by the party high command consists of former Chief Minister of Uttarakhand Bhagat Singh Khusiary(MP), Dr. Rajen Sushan, MP, Rajiv Pratap Ruddy(MP), BJPs National Spokesperson Dr. Nirmal Singh, J & K state BJP president and BJP’s National Secretary Tapir Gao.

In its first phase of study tour the team visited Bomdila , Tawang and undertook extensive tours to the villages in the Chinese border near Lumla, Zemithang and Bumla. etc., said a state BJP release. The team members met the local villagers, GBs and Panchayat leaders besides govt. officials and interacted with the residents there and assessed the present situations following the ‘repeated claim and intrusion by China over the Indian territories’.

The team in its second phase is scheduled to visit to Leh & Ladhak etc. in J & K and Rajasthan in April. The findings on their assessment would be submitted to the party high command which would be further taken up with UPA Govt for necessary action.

The BJP said that the team chairman, Bhagat Singh Khusiary expressed his satisfactions over the positive response and fruitful assessment made.

Dabi, Rebia visit inter-state border

ITANAGAR, Mar 27: State Home Minister Tako Dabi and Parliamentary secretary, (Industries) Nabam Rebia visited the trouble inter-state border at Dulung-Ramghat village under Taraso circle in Papum Pare District on Saturday.

The dignitaries were accompanied by Tashi Lama, DIG, Bidol Tayeng, DC and P. N. Khrimey, SP, Papum Pare.

The village Dulung-Ramghat was in the news during April, 2008 when district Administration Sonitpur (Assam) along with forest department carried out eviction by demolishing the tribal houses and destroying their properties. The people of these villages have been harassed by the Assam forest and district Administration Sonitpur from time to time by carrying out eviction of the tribal houses.

The recent trouble started few days back when around 300-400 Boro tribals from Assam entered into the territory of Arunachal Pradesh at Dulung-Ramghat and started felling trees and clearing forest. The encroachers have also erected few huts in the area. The villagers have strongly resented the clearance of forest inside their territory and sought the intervention of Administration and State Govt. The local youths of the area have reacted against the encroachment and removed the huts erected by the Boro encroachers.

During the visit, the Home Minister and the Parliamentary Secretary have interacted with the local Administration, Panchayat members, gaon burahs, youths and the public of Dulung-Ramghat and nearby villages. They have put forward the problems of the tribal people living in these villages along the Arunachal-Assam border.

The villagers have expressed insecurity alleging that arms wielded elements were present and supporting the Boros clearing the forest. They have submitted a memorandum to the visiting dignitaries for immediate deployment of Police force at Dulung-Ramghat and also posting of OC at the existing IRBn outpost at Taraso.

The Home Minister has assured the people that the problem is being looked into at the highest Govt. level. The matter has already been taken up by the State Govt. with Govt. of Assam.

Dabi urged the people living along the inter-state border to help the local Administration in compulsory enforcement of ILP, particularly for the imported agricultural labourers working under them. He also urged the people to reduce dependent on the outside labourers for agriculture and to encourage self engagement in the agriculture sector. He also urged the people to share the available vacant land in the villages with relatives, so that outsiders do not get chance to occupy and encroach their vacant land, according to an official release.

Papum Pare ZPMs adopt resolutions

ITANAGAR, Mar 27: All the Zilla Parishad Members (ZPMs) of Papum Pare district in a meeting held with ZP chairperson Nabam Aka on the chair on March 26 last had adopted important resolutions for better development of Papum Pare district.

For genuine distribution of works to local beneficiaries, ZPM’s decided that henceforth all the heads of department of the district shall give prior information in written to chairperson Zilla parishad about fund allocation and quantum of works.

Another major decisions taken during meeting were that only firm holders of Papum Pare district will be allowed to carry out various construction works and supply orders in the district and the ZP chairperson be well-informed about the proposals and preparation of schemes (CSS and state Govt schemes within the district) for proper information to all the ZPMs, according to a release issued by the ZP chairperson Nabam Aka.

Functional training on MNREGA-MIS conducted for Lohit district

TEZU, Mar 27: DRDA Lohit sponsored 3-day training Functional Training cum Data Entry Workshop for 'Operationalisation of the Management Information Systems (MIS) under MNREGA for Lohit district concluded recently. The programme was conducted at the NIC District Unit Tezu. The faculty support for the programme was provided by SIRD Arunachal Pradesh . The programme was attended by the DRDA and Programme Officer’s functionaries.

Speaking on the occasion, the Project Director DRDA M. Tatum, emphasized on the need for operationalisation of MIS for ensuring systematic and smooth implementation of the MNREGA programme in Lohit. Project Director DRDA also appreciated the facilitation provided by Rakesh Srivastava, Assistant Director SIRD in correcting the Master Database for Lohit district. Srivastava, coordinated the training intervention at Tezu. MIS and providing online labour budget has been stressed by Government of India as a prerequisite for flow of funds for enabling districts to provide 100 days of employment upon demand.

The district prepared the Gram Panchayat wise, block wise and district labour projections through MNREGA-MIS for forthcoming year 2010-11, making it amongst selected districts in the state to have online labour projections.

The training provided in-depth functional knowledge on all aspects of data entry under MNREGA-MIS to the participants. The programme was well received by the participants with completion of cycle of data entry from registration of households to the Muster roll entry of many Gram Panchayats being completed in the workshop itself.

Srivastava appreciated the proactive role played by the DRDA and the Programme Officers towards making the district online under MNREGA-MIS. He also emphasized on the prompt and proactive support that has been made available by NIC Itanagar, through which the districts in the state are able to catch up for operationalisation of MNREGA-MIS. SIRD Arunachal Pradesh is providing support on demand to the DRDAs for operationalisation of MNREGA-MIS in a systematic manner. DIPRO

Tea policy in state assured

ITANAGAR, Mar 26: The Arunachal Pradesh Govt in principle has accepted the demand for formulation of a tea policy soon to include small tea industries as a part of the revenue resource sector of the state industrial policy. Arunachal Pradesh Small Tea Grower’s Association (APSTGA) in a release claimed that while responding to the memorandum of the APSTGA the Chief Minister had assured to set up a tea department soon to give a boost to small tea growers of the state and encourage tea plantation as an alternative to jhum cultivation.

The APSTGA delegation including its president Tadak Gab, vice president Nabam Nikia and General Secretary Sompha Wangsa also submitted a copy of memorandum to the PWD and UD Minister Nabam Tuki. APSTGA, in its memorandum called for a comprehensive policy for development of tea with special reference to organic tea, creation of assistant director and tea development officer posts, policy to convert traditional jhum lands into organic tea gardens.

Tuki, who was also present during the interaction, suggested the CM to grant subsidies to small tea growers at the initial stages, the release said. The APSTGA appreciated both the Chief Minister and Nabam Tuki for their positive response.

‘Jajum Apu’ released

ITANAGAR, Mar 27: Nabin Payeng, DIGP (Hq) of Arunachal Pradesh police today released a magazine “Jajum Apu, which has been compiled by Er. Kirki Ori and published by Jok-Rar society of India at 1st AAP Bn complex in Chimpu. The magazine is an effort on the part of author to document the oral literature handed down by the forefather from time immemorial.

In his address DIGP Payeng appreciated the efforts made by Kirki Ori to safeguard the tribal culture. Also present on the occasion were Babu Taloh, commandant 3rd IRBn and Kijum Jini, DO, HUDCO.

NBCC annual conference

ITANAGAR, Mar 27: Nyishi Baptist Church Council (NBCC) is conducting its 38th Annual Conference at Town Baptist Church, Kimin from April 9-11.

Rev. Changha Chippo and Rev. Laltanpuia would attend the conference as speakers.

KKDSU’s one-point demand

ITANAGAR, Mar 27: All Kurung Kumey District Students’ Union (KKDSU) in a release claimed that the Chief Minister while responding to its one-point representation has assured to stop re-introduction of head load carriage system of PDS item in the district and also to look into the six points demands submitted earlier. The assurance came when the union met the CM and submitted a representation on its demand, the union further said.