FINALLY some good news for the students of Manipur. North Eastern Council (NEC) will now be sponsoring 50 Manipuri students of the State in Post Graduate courses in Tourism & Airline/conference & Events/International Business Management. This was informed by Manipur Minister for Planning & Vigilance N Biren. The NEC will provide a sum of Rs 2,500 for each student for boarding and lodging, apart from providing Rs 30,000 for every student as course fee, the minister informed. The selected students would be in the Indian Institute of Tourism & Future Management Trends, Chandigarh, for nine months. After completing the course, the students would be trained at different Indian & Foreign Companies. for three months. The Minister also disclosed that applications for these course which will be beginning from August 4 have already been notified by the State Planning Dept and further reiterated that the 50 selected candidates will be employed in different companies after the course. Highlighting the selection procedure of the students, the Minister informed that a selection committee formed by the Planning Dept would be selecting 100 suitable candidates from among the applicants and added that Director ITFT Chandigarh who will be arriving at Imphal soon will screen the 100 selected candidates and select only 50 students for the course. Stating that all necessary preparations have been completed to check the quality and progress of centrally funded projects by the State Planning Dept, Minister Biren said that all reports about the inspections would be sent to the Ministry Planning Commission for necessary actions. The new step is likely to find favor amongst a number of bright students who want to go in for job oriented courses.

Meanwhile, Assam Rifles personnel in Manipur have drawn flak from the public for gunning down at least five suspected militants, recently. However, family members and public organisations say that they were innocent persons who were nabbed, dragged away and then shot dead. IFCSAP against conversions The Indigenous Faith and Cultural Society of Arunachal Pradesh (IFCSAP) has sought Governor VC Pande intervention to stem the “severe threat” of mass conversions threatening the identity of the indigenous people of the culturally rich State. In a memo to the Governor, IFCSAP president Taba Hare alleged that Christian missionaries were going about their objective of mass conversion of innocent tribal populace through inducement, through education imparted at missionary schools and even at gun point with the help of some underground outfits. Highlighting the problem of insurgency infested Tirap and Changlang districts of the State, the memorandum claimed that the people of these districts were living under fear psychosis as the terrorists were converting the people at gun point. The recent conversion of villagers of Ranglup and Ranglap after desecration and destruction of their traditional idols and demolition of Rangfra temple by the missionaries are a proof of threat faced by the age-old culture, the memo stated. AGP-Cong Duel North East News Agency

ASSAM Congress has put the AGP on the firing line. Provocation for the fresh burst of fire is the ‘arrest ‘of AGP activist Lakheswar Moran. Meghalaya Police picked him up from Garo Hills on June 30. He was carrying a grenade. Moran was the organiser of the AGP conclave at Pengeri Brahmajan, Tinsukia district, on June 25. Top party brass - Sarbananda Sonowal, Biren Baishya, Jagadish Bhuyan and Phanibhusan Choudhury – attended the meet. This is enough ammunition for the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) to harp on the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) – ULFA nexus. PCC general secretary Kirip Chaliha, who was with the AGP once, said the confession by Lakheswar Moran indicated that a section of AGP leaders are maintaining close connection with the banned ultras.

REFUTED

AGP President Brindabon Goswami was quick to refute the charge. “AGP is strongly opposed to secessionism and violence and must not be linked with a banned outfit like the ULFA”, he said. Goswami said “We are aware of arrest of Lakheswar Moran. He is not an active member of the party right now. Any how we will take action in case his nexus with ULFA is proved”. Lakheswar Moran was a member of the Margherita district committee but that committee has become defunct. “We are in fact reconstituting the district unit”, AGP president claimed. On Kirip Chaliha’s allegation that a section of AGP turns ‘ ULFA friends’ when out of power, Goswami said before pointing fingers at us, the Congress leader should come clean on the allegation against him.

Chaliha is accused of having paid Rs 5 lakh to ULFA while contesting for Guwahati Lok Sabha seat to enlist their support. What about allegation of ULFA-link against senior Congress Minister Dr Bhumidhar Barman? The matter even figured in the Assembly,” Goswami reminded. PCC leaders Kirip Chaliha and Haren Das accused the AGP of maintaining a ‘double standard’ vis-a-vis ULFA. “They are friends while AGP is out of power and foes when the party is in power. That is why ULFA termed AGP a betrayer,” they remarked. AGP spokesman Sarbananda Sonowal also tried to turn the tables on the PCC. “People of Assam would never forget the days preceding the 2001 State Assembly elections”, he observed. He recalled that at that time while AGP was being targetted by ULFA, the Congressmen freely roamed around the state.

Going for the kill, Sonowal pointed out that all over the state, the AGP workers were targeted by the ULFA and AGP worker Thaneswar Buragohain was killed when militants attacked the party office in Dibrugarh. AGP candidate Kumar Dipak Das lost his legs in ULFA attack in Barpeta. At that same time, the Congress workers could move around freely all over the country, “which proved that the Congress had some kind of understanding with the banned militant outfit.”

The AGP spokesman said that instead of indulging in cheap political gimmick, the ruling party should try to initiate positive steps for permanent solution of the problem of insurgency in Assam. Allegation about nexus between the politicians and the undergrounds is not new in the North-East. From all the states of the region such allegations keep coming after regular intervals. Time has come to conduct an independent probe punish the offenders. Otherwise,  people will soon loose faith in the existing system. 

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