Mercury levels in N-W may relent from weekend

Vinson Kurian

Thiruvananthapuram, Feb. 25 The atmospheric pattern upstream of northwest India is witnessing a churn yet again, which is soon expected to help moderate the high mercury levels being experienced in the region.
A resident semi-permanent trough (of low pressure, rising air and convection) across the border is now in the process of being replaced by a counterpart semi-permanent ridge (of high pressure, sinking air and compression).
These seasonally alternating systems positioned roughly over the Pakistan-Afghanistan region have a substantive role in dictating weather downstream over northwest India – from the seasonal warm and moist to the cold and dry and vice versa.
WESTERLY TRAIN The resident trough has been sending in a relentless array of western disturbances into northwest India, which has been setting off snow/rainfall events even while keeping the mercury level above normal for sometime now.
But this trough had earlier broken the ‘jinx’ to bring western disturbances and resultant wet weather from February, after December and January proved dry like never before and had threatened Rabi crops.
‘Disconcertingly frequent’ westerly systems have been hitting the region back to back, not allowing any to stay anchored for a reasonable period of time (two to three days) and rain down the contents except over the hills.
Assent of the ridge is now expected to help switch off the western disturbances and make the way clear for cold but dry northwesterlies into the region. The mercury levels are expected to be brought down but without rain or snowfall events.
STILL HIGH On Tuesday, India Meteorological Department (IMD) said that both minimum and maximum temperatures continued to be above normal by 4- to 6 deg Celsius over many parts of northwest, west, central and east India.
But it also added that the current meteorological analysis indicated a slight fall in temperatures over these regions during the next three days.
Formation of the ridge would also mean that the band of northwesterlies would be split, with one part getting diverted and made to flow around the ridge to dip into a trough over the region adjoining Northeast India.

This is now expected to set off thunderstorm activity over the region over the next five days, which the IMD has been repeatedly mentioning in its forecast since the past two days.
On Tuesday, India Meteorological Department (IMD) said that both minimum and maximum temperatures continued to be above normal by 4-6 deg Celsius over many parts of northwest, west, central and east India.
But it also added that the current meteorological analysis indicated a slight fall in temperatures over these regions during the next three days.
Formation of the ridge would also mean that the band of northwesterlies would be split, with one part getting diverted and made to flow around the ridge to dip into a trough over the region adjoining Northeast India.
This is now expected to set off thunderstorm activity over the region over the next five days, which the IMD has been repeatedly mentioning in its forecast since the past two days.
On Tuesday, it reiterated that interpretation of numerical weather prediction models suggested scattered rain or thundershower activity over the Northeastern States.
Isolated rain or thundershowers is also likely over Sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim. Rain or thundershowers are likely at a few places over Arunachal Pradesh.
Rain or thundershowers have been forecast at isolated places over Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura during the next two days.
Under the influence of the prevailing western disturbance over Jammu and Kashmir, isolated to scattered rain or snow is likely over the Western Himalayas on Wednesday and isolated thereafter. Rain or snow is likely at isolated places over Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand during the next two days.

1655 associations received foreign contributions of Rs. one crore in 2006-07

New Delhi, Feb 19 : Minister of State for Home Affairs Sriprakash Jaiswal, today said that a total number of 1655 associations have received foreign contribution of an amount of more than Rs. one crore in 2006-07.

In a written reply in Rajya Sabha today, Jaiswal said that out of 1655 associations, 155 have received foreign contributions from donors based in India.

“As per the provisional data compiled so far for the year 2007-08, 1435 associations have received foreign contribution of an amount of more than Rs. one crore, out of which 122 associations received foreign contribution from donors based in India,” Jaiswal added.

Chin locals forced to work on road reconstruction

Feb 19, 2009 (DVB)-Locals in Chin state's Htantalan township are being forced to work on the reconstruction of an old road and donate money towards the project in order to gain favour with authorities.

An ethnic Chin local in Hakha village said that Dr Mu Htan, who was elected by Htantalan as an independent representative for the people's parliament in 1990, is making locals work on the reconstruction.

"He is forcing locals to contribute one head per household for one week for the road construction with no meal provided," said the man.

Mu Htan is known to have close business deals with the government. It is thought that locals are being forced into the work to gain favour with Chin state's Peace and Development Council chairman colonel Hon Ngai.

"Also he is aiming to collect 62 million kyat donation money for that project and has been pressuring parents of local youths who are living abroad now to ask for money from them," said the man.

The reconstruction is being done on an old road linking the state's capital Hakha to Hmandaw village in Sagaing division, halfway between Kalay and Gantgaw townships.

Hakha locals have said they were worried they might miss the marking of the Chin national day on 20 February because they had to do work for Mu Htan.

Mu Htan was unavailable for comments.

Governor leads in condemning dastardly killing

Imphal, February 19: Governor Gurbachan Jagat has expressed pain and anguish at the brutal killing of SDO Kasom Khullen Dr Thingnam Kishan Singh along with his two subordinates A Rajen and Sharma and and Y Token after abducting them by some unknown persons.

Condemning the incident, the Governor urged the State Government to take swift and effective action against the perpetrators, so that the rule of law and respect for authority is maintained.

Gurbachan Jagat said, "Dr Kishan was known to be a man of principle and his death will cause a great vacuum not only in the family but also in the State administration and Manipuri society".

A meeting underway to decry the killing of the officials

He appealed to the people of the State to come together and share the grief of the family of the deceased and also to resolve to work together for peace and security, so that such incidents are not repeated in future.

Taphou Kuki Village Authority strongly condemned the dumping of dead bodies of Dr Th Kishan and his subordinates inside the area of the village.

The VA urged the concerned to clarify on the incident.

The village also shared the grief and sorrow of the bereaved family.

Chandel Naga People's Organisation and Anal Naga Taangpi (ANTA) while condemning the killing pledged support to the bandhs called by different organisations in connection with the killing.

Zeliangrong Union (AMN) and Zeliangrong Youth Front (AMN) also strongly condemned the inhuman killing of Dr Th Kishan and his subbordinates.

ZU said that the State Government and 'revolutionary groups' must deal such inhuman acts according to their law and own capacity.

The people of Manipur should take a pledge to oppose and take a collective action against the organisations and individuals who involve in such brutal acts.

Kuki Students' Organisation, Sardar Hills while condemning the incident urged the concerned to clarify regarding the killing to avoid any misunderstanding amongst general public.

Naga People Organisation (NPO), Senapati District Women Association (SDWA) and Senapati District Students' Association (SDSA) while expressing strong resentment over the killing stated that the organisations would not tolerate or accept the anti-social elements to create chaos and antagonism among people.

The bodies urged the concerned authorities to book the culprits at the earliest.

Kabui Mothers' Association, (KAMA), Zeliangrong Students' Union, Manipur, Mao Naga Women Welfare Association, All Tribal Women Organisation, Chandel, Kuki Students' Organisation, Mao Council, Thadou Students' Association, Komrem Students' Union, Moyon Students' Union and All Jiribam Welfare Association also condemned the killing. Condemning the inhuman killing, AMSU called a 12-hour general strike from 6 am to 6 pm of February 19.The students body also pressed the Government to bring the culprits into book.

Condemning the killing, Manipuri Students Federation (MSF) accused that the perpetrators is responsible if any untoward incident happens in the State because of the killing.

AISF Manipur State Council, DM College of Arts Students' Union, Kangleipak Students Union, Democratic Youth Federation of India and Malom Tulihal Students Union also condemned the killing of Dr Thingnam Kishan and his two subbordinates.

FRIENDS, Poirei Leimarol Meira Paibi Apunba Manipur, Thangmeiband Kendra Development Committee, Centre for Organisation Research and Education, Social Volunteers' Association, Lok Janashakti Party vice-president Sapam Shamungou, Progressive Writers' Association, All Manipur Nupi Marup, International Manipuri Mothers' Association, Salai Apunba Nupi Lamjing Lup, Thangmeiband Apunba Nupi Lup (THANIL), All Manipur Democratic Women Association, Manipur State Committee, Ching-Tam Apunba Sheishak Lup, Minuthong Hatta Social Welfare Union, Secretariat Services Association, Citizens' Club, All Manipur Rickshaw Drivers' and Pullers' Welfare Association, Jana Neta Irawat Foundation, All Manipur Youth Protection Committee, Manipur People's Party, Uripok Congress Committee, Meetei Erol Eyek Loinasillon Apunba Lup (MEELAL), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Manipur State Council, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Manipur State Committee, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Manipur State, Communist Party of India, Manipur State Council, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Manipur, Rashtriya Lok Dal, Manipur State, All Manipur PHED Workers and Employees' Association, All Manipur Government Higher Secondary Lecturers' Welfare Association, All Manipur Government Drivers' and Technicians' Association, SLUCO, Human Rights Initiative, Anti Drug Committee of Kiyamgei Muslim Awang Leikai, English Literary Society, Jiri Development Organisation (JDO), former Minister Dr M Nara Singh also condemned the killing.

WEST MIDNAPORE: Lalgarh bond for Morcha

BY AMIT UKIL

Lalgarh (West Midnapore), Feb 19 : The tribal leaders of the south and the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leaders of the north today shook hands and pledged support to each other’s movements.

At the invitation of Chhatradhar Mahato, the leader of the People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities, Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri and media and publicity secretary Binay Tamang attended as chief guests a public meeting called to condemn the torture of tribal villagers in the hands of police and CPM supporters.

After a little over an hour of closed door conversations, the leaders of both sides emerged from the forest rest house to the venue nearby, where over 5,000 tribal villagers had gathered to hear them.

“The Morcha fully supports your movement against the CPM and the police, who are not allowing democratic rallies in the Dooars. The CPM is creating a divide between the Adivasis and the Gorkhas. But we are with the Adivasis in the Dooars and Terai and want the closed tea gardens to open so that the tribal workers get back their jobs,” Giri said.

“Party chief Bimal Gurung could not attend as he is in Gorubathan heading a similar movement against the CPM and for the tribal people of the Dooars. But he will speak to you over the mobile phone,” Giri said while connecting the number. “We are against the police atrocities in Lalgarh. Our movements are similar; we must be united in the struggle. We are with you,” Gurung said over the phone, held to the microphone.

Tamang was a bit more vehement. “The Left Front sees the Adivasis and Gorkhas as animals. The condition of the tribals in the Dooars gardens is very bad…If needs be, we will paralyse life in north Bengal with your support,” he said.

Joydeb Mukherjee, the secretary of the All-India Legal Aid Forum, said the Lalgarh protests were the “semi-finals”. “The finals will be when you block the whole district if the chief minister himself does not come here to apologise for his policemen’s atrocities,” he said.

Chhatradhar later told reporters he had accepted the invitation to go to Darjeeling when the Morcha plans a similar rally there.

Murders Most Foul

The savagery of the murder would appal anybody except pathological killers. Dr. Thingnam Kishan, SDO Kasom Khullen, his official driver Rajen Sharma and mondal Y Token Singh, were blind-folded, hands tied behind their back and their faces and heads bludgeoned into disfigurement.

Their dead bodies were discovered near Taphou village in the Senapati district, four days after their vehicle was commandeered by an assailant in Ukhrul district headquarters.

Our heartfelt condolences to his subordinate colleagues, but in Dr. Kishan’s death, the state government, and indeed the state as a whole, have lost a part of its own future.

In the late officer was combined the rare values of academic brilliance and a strong commitment to society and justice.

When he decided to join the Manipur Civil Service, having cleared the last long and torturous recruitment process, he was already a lecturer of English literature in the DM College of Arts, and also had an appointment letter to join the Manipur University English department as lecturer.

Earlier still, he was lecturer of English on ad hoc basis in Shyamlal College, University of Delhi.

His academic credentials are beyond question. He had also shown extraordinary commitment to social reform and justice exhibiting immense activist instinct in bringing out a quarterly journal “Alternative Perspective” which intellectually addressed the many unsettled issues faced by Manipur and the northeast.

He left all this behind to join the MCS. Sceptical Manipur whose faith in the bureaucracy or its intent is in one of the lowest ebb in these troubled times, thanks to the monolith of corruption which has come to be associated with the establishment that profession is the engine, would surely raise eyebrows.

The natural and cynical suspicion today is, anybody who enters these services do so lusting the spoils of office and power. But this attitude is wrong although understandable, and a new crop of bureaucrats like Dr. Kishan were out to prove this.

Sure, bureaucracy has a special lure and in its essence this has hardly to do with any corrupt sense of power or lucre, although this we must admit has become our reality at this moment.

On the other hand, it has a lot to do with a powerful sense of agency of change and reform, which the bureaucracy, together with the political establishment, is indeed.

This sense of the power to reform society and in a definite sense influence lives of people other than just the self, gives this profession a special significance and attraction, making it undoubtedly the most sought after career.

You can either enter it enamoured by the prospect of power and riches, or else with a sense of mission. Dr. Kishan who preferred it to a promising career as an academic, probably belonged to the latter category. It is unfortunate that someone whose mind was ignited by the fire of idealism should die even before the journey has begun.

There is nothing which can be done to reverse things but there are plenty of ways to minimise the chances of such crimes happening again.

In this a common pledge of the public to jointly fight such mindless and sinister violence together is most essential.

Happily this seems to be happening in the unreserved public outrage all over the state, overlapping and crossing known fault lines between communities, hills and valley etc.

A strong, united and unyielding disapproval of this kind of violence by the public at large, more than even tough policing, in the long run would prove the surest guarantee against a repeat of such tragedies.

This however does not mean the law enforcing mechanism has no part in ensuring security.

After witnessing the breakdown of law and order in the state, more than at any other time, the anxiety induced by the chaos of the extended English Civil War of the mid 17th Century which broke out in 1642 between the Royalists and Parliamentarians which made Thomas Hobbes presume that the State must have to be the repository of all powers for law and order to prevail, now seems compelling logic.

Max Weber in the 19th Century was to extend this argument further to define the State as an entity which claims monopoly to “legitimate use of violence.”

This is the time for the Manipur state law keeping mechanism to assert and re-establish its authority. It can begin by leaving no stone unturned in digging out the truth behind the triple murder, booking and fittingly punishing the culprits.

Manipur Govt. to hand over officials' killing case to CBI

Imphal, feb 19 : The Manipur Cabinet has decided to hand over thexase relating to killing of a sub-divisional officer and his two staff members by suspected hill-based militants to the CBI, as over 50 vehicles were damaged during a 48-hour statewide bandh to protest the slaying.

Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh at a meeting late Tuesday night decided to hand over the case of the killing of SDO of Kasom Khullen in Ukhrul district, Thingnam Kishan, his driver Aribam Rajen and an official of his department Y Token, whose bodies were found on Tuesday at Taphou in Senapati district.

The three were reportedly kidnapped from Ukhrul district on February 13.

Supporters of the bandh called by a Joint Action Committee of local residents, damaged over 50 vehicles at Sagolband, Kakwa, Yumnam Leikai and many other places, reports said.

Bandh supporters blocked roads in Imphal and greater Imphal areas and set fire to vehicles.