Aizawl: The Governing Body of the Mizoram State Health Care Society (MSHCS) held its eighth meeting yesterday, at the Conference Hall of Chief Minister’s Office under the stewardship of the Chief Minister Mr. Lal Thanhawla.
In order to bring about uniformity in working of MSHCS and the centrally sponsored Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), the meeting decided that the Third Party Administrator (TPA) and the Insurance Company would be the same for the schemes. The meeting also decided to charge Rs.100/-(one hundred) for Below Poverty Line (BPL) families and Rs. 500/- (five hundred) for Above Poverty Line (APL) families as a token premium which would entitle them to recieve upto Rs. 1,00,000/- (one lakh) for reimbursement of medical expenses under the Scheme . The token premium would augment the financial resources of the Scheme, the meeting added. For critical illnesses, the reimbursement of medical expenses can be upto Rs. 3,00,000/-(three lakhs). The MSHCS Scheme will be implemented from the 1st July 2010 in the state.
Under the MSHCS, the Chief Minister is the Chairman, the Health Minister is the Co-Chairman, the Chief Secretary is the Vice Chairman and the Health Secretary is the Member Secretary. The meeting approved the appointment of the Secretaries of Finance, Rural Development, Law & Judicial Departments, the Director of Health Services, the Director of Hospital & Medical Education as members of the Society and the Presidents of - Central YMA, MUP and MHIP as non-official members.
Twin factors hold up refugee repatriation
Agartala, May 22 : The Mizoram government has begun the repatriation of Bru refugees from Tripura.
However, in the first phase, only 259 of the 564 families who fled to Tripura in November last year in the wake of atrocities committed by Mizo civilians, will be taken back.
As part of an understanding reached last Thursday, 78 vehicles were to take 154 families today.
But till 4pm, only 63 families were able to return from Naisingpara camp under Kanchanpur subdivision of North Tripura because of disruption caused by heavy pre-monsoon rain last night.
Official sources in Kanchanpur said efforts were on to send back at least 100 families before nightfall.
Kanchanpur sub-divisional officer Dilip Chakma said last Thursday, four state government officials headed by SDO (Kwartha) Benjamin Lalthama and BDO (Kwartha) Paul L. Khuama went to Kanchanpur and finalised the details of the repatriation process.
“We had pressed them for the repatriation of all 564 families that checked into the camps in November last year but they agreed to take back only 259 families whose credentials had been verified. The officials assured us that the repatriation will be completed in a phased manner,” Chakma said.
He added that the sub-divisional administration in Kanchanpur was facing lot of problems in keeping safe the 36,000 Reang refugees stranded in Tripura since October 15, 1997.
He said according to the agreement reached by the sub-divisional administration and Mizoram officials, 154 families were identified for repatriation but “bad weather and delayed paperwork” had resulted in the repatriation of only 63 families.
“We reached an understanding that on May 22, 50 families and on May 23, 55 families would be repatriated but since today’s quota is unlikely to be fulfilled, the process is expected to continue beyond May 23,” said Chakma.
Official sources here expressed satisfaction over the repatriation and said it would continue on a staggered schedule.
“It is a small beginning but the important thing is that the ice has been broken. We hope the process will continue though finishing it may take some time,” said S.K. Reang, the director of the relief and rehabilitation department.
He said despite pressure from the government of Tripura and the Union ministry of home affairs, the Mizoram government had always been reluctant to take back the refugees who had been forced to take shelter in Tripura following ethnic violence and attacks on them.
The issue was also raised at an international level by Bru (Reang) organisations and their sympathisers among rights activists.
However, in the first phase, only 259 of the 564 families who fled to Tripura in November last year in the wake of atrocities committed by Mizo civilians, will be taken back.
As part of an understanding reached last Thursday, 78 vehicles were to take 154 families today.
But till 4pm, only 63 families were able to return from Naisingpara camp under Kanchanpur subdivision of North Tripura because of disruption caused by heavy pre-monsoon rain last night.
Official sources in Kanchanpur said efforts were on to send back at least 100 families before nightfall.
Kanchanpur sub-divisional officer Dilip Chakma said last Thursday, four state government officials headed by SDO (Kwartha) Benjamin Lalthama and BDO (Kwartha) Paul L. Khuama went to Kanchanpur and finalised the details of the repatriation process.
“We had pressed them for the repatriation of all 564 families that checked into the camps in November last year but they agreed to take back only 259 families whose credentials had been verified. The officials assured us that the repatriation will be completed in a phased manner,” Chakma said.
He added that the sub-divisional administration in Kanchanpur was facing lot of problems in keeping safe the 36,000 Reang refugees stranded in Tripura since October 15, 1997.
He said according to the agreement reached by the sub-divisional administration and Mizoram officials, 154 families were identified for repatriation but “bad weather and delayed paperwork” had resulted in the repatriation of only 63 families.
“We reached an understanding that on May 22, 50 families and on May 23, 55 families would be repatriated but since today’s quota is unlikely to be fulfilled, the process is expected to continue beyond May 23,” said Chakma.
Official sources here expressed satisfaction over the repatriation and said it would continue on a staggered schedule.
“It is a small beginning but the important thing is that the ice has been broken. We hope the process will continue though finishing it may take some time,” said S.K. Reang, the director of the relief and rehabilitation department.
He said despite pressure from the government of Tripura and the Union ministry of home affairs, the Mizoram government had always been reluctant to take back the refugees who had been forced to take shelter in Tripura following ethnic violence and attacks on them.
The issue was also raised at an international level by Bru (Reang) organisations and their sympathisers among rights activists.
Census 2011 begins in Mizoram today
Census 2011, the seventh census after independence, begins in Mizoram today covering all the eight districts, S K Chakraborty, Deputy Director of Census Operations, New Delhi announced in Aizawl yesterday.
Chakraborty told a press conference that 2,354 enumerators and 392 supervisors would conduct the census and the National Population Register would also be prepared in the state along with the rest of the country.
All the district magistrates of the eight districts have been designated as Principal Census Officers.
The first phase of the census during which houselisting, housing census and collection of data on National Population Register would be completed by September this year and the population enumeration would be taken up during February next year, he added.
Chakraborty told a press conference that 2,354 enumerators and 392 supervisors would conduct the census and the National Population Register would also be prepared in the state along with the rest of the country.
All the district magistrates of the eight districts have been designated as Principal Census Officers.
The first phase of the census during which houselisting, housing census and collection of data on National Population Register would be completed by September this year and the population enumeration would be taken up during February next year, he added.
Refugees' return from Tripura to Mizoram is non-starter
Agartala/Aizawl, May 11 (IANS) The much-awaited repatriation of tribal refugees from Tripura to Mizoram did not start Tuesday as the authorities did not arrange transport and security for them, a refugee leader said.
'The refugees were ready to return, but the Mizoram government did not arrange any vehicle and security for them,' refugee leader Elvis Chorkhy told reporters.
'We have sent letters (through fax) to top officials of Mizoram government and told them that without security and vehicles how would refugees go to their villages in Mamit district of western Mizoram,' said Chorkhy, who is also the president of Mizoram Bru Displaced People's Forum (MBDPF).
Last week, the Mizoram government informed the Tripura govenment and refugee leaders that it has decided to take back 2,000 tribal refugees who had taken shelter in north Tripura last year.
On Monday, Mizoram Home Secretary Lalmalsawma told reporters in Aizawl: 'We have taken steps to repatriate the refugees from Tuesday. The exercise is expected to be completed by May 15.'
The official said Mizoram will give Rs.40,000 per refugee family for travelling and construction of home in their villages.
Around 32,000 Reang tribal refugees have taken shelter in six camps in north Tripura, adjacent to Mizoram, since 1997.
They fled western Mizoram after ethnic clashes with Mizos over the killing of a forest official.
The refugees' repatriation from Tripura to Mizoram was stopped in November last year when a mob in western Mizoram burnt down around 700 tribal houses after an 18-year-old Mizo youth was shot dead by unidentified miscreants.
Following the arson and violence, about 5,500 displaced Reang tribals took shelter in adjacent Tripura.
'I have met the refugee leaders and informed them about the Mizoram government's willingness to take back around 2,000 newly displaced tribal refugees,' north Tripura's Kanchanpur Sub-Divisional Magistrate Dilip Chakma said Monday.
'The refugees were ready to return, but the Mizoram government did not arrange any vehicle and security for them,' refugee leader Elvis Chorkhy told reporters.
'We have sent letters (through fax) to top officials of Mizoram government and told them that without security and vehicles how would refugees go to their villages in Mamit district of western Mizoram,' said Chorkhy, who is also the president of Mizoram Bru Displaced People's Forum (MBDPF).
Last week, the Mizoram government informed the Tripura govenment and refugee leaders that it has decided to take back 2,000 tribal refugees who had taken shelter in north Tripura last year.
On Monday, Mizoram Home Secretary Lalmalsawma told reporters in Aizawl: 'We have taken steps to repatriate the refugees from Tuesday. The exercise is expected to be completed by May 15.'
The official said Mizoram will give Rs.40,000 per refugee family for travelling and construction of home in their villages.
Around 32,000 Reang tribal refugees have taken shelter in six camps in north Tripura, adjacent to Mizoram, since 1997.
They fled western Mizoram after ethnic clashes with Mizos over the killing of a forest official.
The refugees' repatriation from Tripura to Mizoram was stopped in November last year when a mob in western Mizoram burnt down around 700 tribal houses after an 18-year-old Mizo youth was shot dead by unidentified miscreants.
Following the arson and violence, about 5,500 displaced Reang tribals took shelter in adjacent Tripura.
'I have met the refugee leaders and informed them about the Mizoram government's willingness to take back around 2,000 newly displaced tribal refugees,' north Tripura's Kanchanpur Sub-Divisional Magistrate Dilip Chakma said Monday.
Mizo masterplan to revamp farming
| Policy aims at abolishing jhum method | ||
| OUR CORRESPONDENT | ||
Silchar, May 9: The Congress government in Mizoram will launch its masterplan to develop farming in the state sometime in end-July. This agriculture scheme called , the new land use policy, will replace the primitive method of the jhum (slash and burn) farming in the state by a permanent system of cultivation on the hill slopes and on the fallow lands in the valleys. The policy, which will cost both the central and state exchequers Rs 2,907.90 crore, will help increase food output by seven folds in five years. P.L. Thanga, the vice-chairman of the project in the state, said in Aizawl yesterday that a baseline survey of the farmers’ present economic status in the state had already been completed in September last year by Young Mizo Association, an NGO which has its branch in each village and hamlet in the state. Thanga, a retired IAS officer who is also the secretary of the state planning board, added that the government had sought suggestions as well as amendments from the people for this survey, which has identified those farmers who now need both cash and material grants to overhaul their age-old farming practice. The deadline for sending in the suggestions is May 31. Thanga said the final reports about those possible recipients of help under the policy would be submitted to the project board on June 21, and the formal notification for flagging off this ambitious project would be issued on July 9. Official sources in Aizawl hoped that this project, which was conceived during the Congress regime in the state between 1993 and 1998 and then revived after chief minister and state Congress chief Lalthan-hawla was back in power again in December 2008, is likely to be formally operational in the last week of July. A fixed date for its inauguration would be announced soon, the sources said. The sources also said the policy would be a multi-pronged plan where apart from farming regeneration, its mainstay, attention would also be given to accelerate the output of horticulture products such as grapes, ginger, papaya and passion fruit (sapthei), handicrafts, milk production and fisheries. This year at least 17,046 hectares of forestland in the state were devoured by the bushfire, a result of the burn and slash method. | ||
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Church merger aims to help Indian Christians
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| Reverend Setri Nyomi |
The World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) and Reformed Ecumenical Council (REC) will merge in June in Michigan to form the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC).
WARC general secretary Reverend Setri Nyomi, who was in India last week for the biennial meeting of the Presbyterian Church in India, told UCA News that the merger constitutes “a refreshing attempt to reverse fragmentation” within the Church.
Six Indian churches-the Church of South India, Church of North India, Presbyterian Church of India, Evangelical Church of Maraland, The Church of Christ and Reformed Presbyterian Church in North East India-will be a part of the alliance.
The WARC includes congregational, Presbyterian, Reformed and United Churches. Reverend Nyomi, who hails from Ghana, is the first non-European to head the alliance and has done so since 2000.
Reverend Nyomi said the merger will showcase global-level Christian unity. It will also strengthen the unity of Churches in India, he said.
Moreover, the Presbyterian Church of India is a member of both the merging organizations. Instead of belonging to two, it will now belong to the one merged new alliance.
The WCRC would be “the one voice of the united churches” against “any evil” in the world, he said.
The alliance would be helpful to its partners in India because “in a communion, when one suffers, the other also suffers.” If Indian Christians suffer, it should affect Christians in other parts of the world, he said.
“The Churches in India should be able to say that we are not alone. We have brothers and sisters in other parts of the world,” the Presbyterian theologian said.
He said the alliance will make Christianity easy for outsiders to understand. “The union represents unity in diversity, which is a healthy sign,” he said during a lecture in New Delhi.
“Christ prayed that his followers be one and we take that prayer very seriously,” he said adding the decision to merge was taken in 2006 when the two groups concluded the need to go beyond collaboration.
Source: Church merger aims to help Indian Christians (UCAN)
Centre notifies draft share of states in national truck permit scheme
NEW DELHI: Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh will get the major share of revenue from the issuance of national permits for trucks under the new policy. The Centre has now notified the draft rules on how the share of each state.
Under the new national permit policy, trucks can get the permit for the entire country after paying Rs 15,000 per year. The draft notification proposes that Maharashtra will get a maximum of Rs 1,576 per permit per annum whereas Mizoram will get the lowest share of revenue -- Rs 4. The norm proposes that Uttar Pradesh, with a major share of national and state highways network, will get 10.5% of the consolidated fee on national permits. The consolidated share would come to Rs 1,574 per permit.
Similarly, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Gujarat will get a sizable share of the consolidated fee on the national permits.
Under the new scheme, a state in which a truck is registered will issue a single national permit for Rs 15,000 per truck annually, which could help operators save around Rs 10,000. Currently, these truckers pay Rs 20,000 and get access to the home state and three neighbouring states. For each additional state, the transporter has to pay another Rs 5,000. Presently about 1.2 million trucks with national permits ply across the country.
Earlier, the road, transport and highways ministry and states had worked out the compensation formula. However, sources said that Tamil Nadu and Bihar were not happy with it. "Now we have notified the specification for distribution of the consolidated fee among states and Union Territories. All the stakeholders can file their objections, which will be considered prior to the issuance of the final notification,'' said a ministry official.
However, industry analysts still feel that the government has not given enough time to the stakeholders to respond and file their objections.
S P Singh, senior fellow at Indian Foundation of Transport Research and Training (IFTRT), said, "The government has given little time for the stakeholders to make suggestions or objections this time. On all earlier occasions, when any amendment was made to the national permit scheme, the government gave at least 45 days to the stakeholders to give suggestions and objections. This time there is no specified period for this.''
Under the new national permit policy, trucks can get the permit for the entire country after paying Rs 15,000 per year. The draft notification proposes that Maharashtra will get a maximum of Rs 1,576 per permit per annum whereas Mizoram will get the lowest share of revenue -- Rs 4. The norm proposes that Uttar Pradesh, with a major share of national and state highways network, will get 10.5% of the consolidated fee on national permits. The consolidated share would come to Rs 1,574 per permit.
Similarly, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Gujarat will get a sizable share of the consolidated fee on the national permits.
Under the new scheme, a state in which a truck is registered will issue a single national permit for Rs 15,000 per truck annually, which could help operators save around Rs 10,000. Currently, these truckers pay Rs 20,000 and get access to the home state and three neighbouring states. For each additional state, the transporter has to pay another Rs 5,000. Presently about 1.2 million trucks with national permits ply across the country.
Earlier, the road, transport and highways ministry and states had worked out the compensation formula. However, sources said that Tamil Nadu and Bihar were not happy with it. "Now we have notified the specification for distribution of the consolidated fee among states and Union Territories. All the stakeholders can file their objections, which will be considered prior to the issuance of the final notification,'' said a ministry official.
However, industry analysts still feel that the government has not given enough time to the stakeholders to respond and file their objections.
S P Singh, senior fellow at Indian Foundation of Transport Research and Training (IFTRT), said, "The government has given little time for the stakeholders to make suggestions or objections this time. On all earlier occasions, when any amendment was made to the national permit scheme, the government gave at least 45 days to the stakeholders to give suggestions and objections. This time there is no specified period for this.''
Bru repatriation from May 11
Aizawl, May 6 (PTI) Repatriation of around 462 Bru families, who had fled Mizoram to neighbouring Tripura in the wake of the communal tension triggered by the murder of a Mizo youth by Bru militants in November, would begin from May 11, state Home Secretary Lalmalsawma said here today.
The Brus would return and would be resettled in their respective villages in Mizoram and the exercise was expected to be completed by May 15, Lalmalsawma told PTI.
To make sure that the repatriated Brus were bona fide residents of the state, the home secretary said job cards under NREGS, electoral photo identity cards and family ration cards would be sufficient proofs.
The Brus would return and would be resettled in their respective villages in Mizoram and the exercise was expected to be completed by May 15, Lalmalsawma told PTI.
To make sure that the repatriated Brus were bona fide residents of the state, the home secretary said job cards under NREGS, electoral photo identity cards and family ration cards would be sufficient proofs.
Many Burmese involved in criminal activities in Mizoram: Lalthanhawla
5 May 2010-05-05: Mizoram Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla has spoken of Burmese people being involved in criminal activities at a Class 1 officers’ meet on May 3 in the Vanapa Hall in Aizawl city, Mizoram northeast state of India.
The daily newspaper Vanglaini reported that the Chief Minister said that most criminal activities in the state are by Burmese people, who are foreigners in Mizoram state.
The Home Minister R. Zirliana said that the government could not deport and push back Burmese people involved in criminal cases and hand them over to the military junta directly, though he had made an announcement regarding this. That is because of the prevailing international laws and some weakness of the enforcement agencies. However, he said the government would try to handle it the best way possible.
He warned that most Burmese people fled to Mizoram because of political and economic upheaval in Burma and are staying here as refugees or migrant workers under some NOGs. However, they have to understand not to take advantage and get involved in wrong doings like threatening local people with guns, rape and brew alcohol in Mizoram.
There are about 1.5 lakh Burmese people in Mizoram and 100,000 of them are Chin people. The biggest NGO in Mizoram, the Young Mizo Association (YMA) has carried out a population census of Burmese in 2009 but it has not been announced officially yet.
via - Khonumthung News
The daily newspaper Vanglaini reported that the Chief Minister said that most criminal activities in the state are by Burmese people, who are foreigners in Mizoram state.
The Home Minister R. Zirliana said that the government could not deport and push back Burmese people involved in criminal cases and hand them over to the military junta directly, though he had made an announcement regarding this. That is because of the prevailing international laws and some weakness of the enforcement agencies. However, he said the government would try to handle it the best way possible.
He warned that most Burmese people fled to Mizoram because of political and economic upheaval in Burma and are staying here as refugees or migrant workers under some NOGs. However, they have to understand not to take advantage and get involved in wrong doings like threatening local people with guns, rape and brew alcohol in Mizoram.
There are about 1.5 lakh Burmese people in Mizoram and 100,000 of them are Chin people. The biggest NGO in Mizoram, the Young Mizo Association (YMA) has carried out a population census of Burmese in 2009 but it has not been announced officially yet.
via - Khonumthung News
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