Nagaland Post www.nagalandpost.com
Vol XXVIII No. 252
SATURDAY, AUGUST 18, 2018 Pages 12 ` 5.00
Police grill Netanyahu in alleged graft
Reality check awaits as India eye Asiad glory
Panel reviewing food labelling standards
international, Page 9
sports, Page 12
business, Page 8
Vajpayee cremated with state honours
(L) Narendra Modi, Amit Shah and other leaders participate in the last journey of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Friday. (R) Family members and relatives of late Atal Bihari Vajpayee during his cremation at Rashtriya Smriti Sthal in New Delhi on Friday. (PTI)
NEW DELHI, AUG 17 (PTI): Bugles sounded the last post, uniformed soldiers gave a gun salute and silence fell over the crowd as former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s mortal remains were consigned to the flames today evening, the sun setting on the life of a poet-politician who combined accommodative politics with graciousness. Foster daughter Namita Kaul Bhattacharya lit the pyre as cries of “Atal Bihari Amar Rahe” rever-
berated in the air and a light drizzle fell. President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress president Rahul Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh were among the thousands of people at the Rashtriya Smriti Sthal on the banks of the Yamuna. Several foreign dignitaries, including Bhutanese king Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, Bangladesh Foreign Minister Abul
Hassan Mahmood Ali and Pakistan’s Law Minister Ali Zafar were present as Vajpayee was cremated with full state honours. The tricolour draping Vajpayee was folded and handed over to his granddaughter Niharika. It was a sea of white, with most mourners dressed in the colour of mourning to remember the man who wove together pragmatism and his vision for an inclusive India. Thousands of mourn-
ers poured into the streets of the national capital as Vajpayee’s cortege made its way from his home to the BJP headquarters on Deendayal Upadhyay Marg and then to the Rashtriya Smriti Sthal. As the crowds surged forward, some running, some walking, the prime minister and BJP president Amit Shah were among those who walked behind the gun carriage, decorated with flowers. Earlier in the morning, hundreds of people chanted
“Atal Bihari Amar Rahe” as Vajpayee’s cortege made its way from his home through the city to reach the BJP office about five kilometres away. Nagaland governor, PB Acharya, also attended the funeral of former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, in New Delhi on Friday and paid tribute to departed leader. State chief minister, Neiphiu Rio, also joined the country in paying homage to Atal Biharai Vajpayee.
Kerala experiencing a catastrophe of a lifetime; over 300 dead in floods
T H I RU VA NA N THAPURAM, AUG 17 (AGENCIES): Kerala’s most savage monsoon in a century has killed 324 people over the last nine days, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said, issuing a fresh rain alert for the battered state. Nearly 2 lakh people have been displaced. The state, battling floods and landslides, plunged deeper into crisis today, with hospitals facing shortage of oxygen and fuel stations running dry. Vijayan told the media that the situation arising out of unprecedented floods and subsequent havoc caused by turgid rivers and gushing waters in Kerala continues to be “grave”. Since August 8 when the rains began pounding the southern state, around 2.40 lakh persons have been lodged in 1,568 relief camps across Kerala. Hundreds of defence personnel, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams, helped by more than 20 helicopters, mounted search and rescue operations. Fishermen along with their motorboats too joined the humanitarian efforts.
Houses and roads submerged water following heavy rain and landslides in Kerala.
More helicopters were pressed into service on Friday to fly sorties for rescue and relief. Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman sanctioned the extra choppers, as people marooned in Chengannur and Chalakudy could only be airlifted to safety. Waters from the Periyar river and its tributaries kept many towns in Ernakulam and Thrissur districts submerged. The worst affected include Paravur, Kalady, Chalakudy, Perumbavoor and Muvatupuzha. Thousands of people are still perched on highrise buildings waiting to be rescued and taken to relief
camps. Over 50,000 people are lodged in the Ernakulam and Thrissur camps alone. Intensity of rains, however, decreased in several districts since Friday morning, leading to decrease in water level in three big dams in Idukki district. The red alert in Kasargode and Thiruvananthapuram districts was withdrawn on Friday though the warning continued in other 12 districts in Kerala. “The only good news is that intensity of rains has come down in certain areas. We plan to rescue all those awaiting help, preferably by the day’s end,” Vijayan (Cont’d on p-7) said.
Imran Khan elected Pak’s 22nd PM Will stop ops if dues are Report claims Khango ousted as chairman NSCN(K) ISLAMABAD, AUG 17 (IANS): Cricketer-turnedpolitician Imran Khan was on Friday elected Pakistan’s 22nd Prime Minister in a vote in the country’s National Assembly, three weeks after his Pakistan Tehreeke-Insaf (PTI) party won the highest number of seats in the general election. Khan, 65, secured 176 votes out of the total 272 cast in polling in the lower house, while his opponent Shehbaz Sharif of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) got 96 votes, according to National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser. Khan will take the oath of office on Saturday. The announcement of his election came amid protests from opposition lawmakers who shouted slogans denouncing alleged electoral fraud during the general elections. The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), the third largest party in the house
CM greets Sangtams
D I M A P U R , AU G 1 7 (NPN): State chief minister, Neiphiu Rio, Friday extended greetings to the members of the Sangtam community on the occasion of Hunapongpi festival. Rio, in a tweet, prayed that the festivity bring cheer, goodwill and foster unity and brotherhood.
This is it!
“What to do? Departments no longer propose development. They only ask funds for floods and landslides.” K Y M C
Imran Khan
that joined the PML-N and others in an opposition alliance, withdrew its support for Shehbaz Sharif ’s candidature as Premier days before the election and abstained from voting, Dawn online reported. One member of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), which contested elections under the Muttahida Majlis-eAmal (MMA) banner, also abstained from voting for either candidate. According to Geo News, among the first steps
the PTI-led government aims to take is a reshuffling of the top federal and provincial bureaucracy under its first 100-day plan. The strategy was finalized in a top-level huddle attended by Khan and the senior party leadership on Thursday. The reshuffle includes changing the chiefs of federal and provincial state institutions and officers previously appointed under political pressure. Geo News cited sources as saying that Khan has also decided to change the heads of the Federal Board of Revenue, Railways, Pakistan International Airlines and a few other institutions. Earlier, PTI leaders spoke about the merger of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the creation of South Punjab province and giving greater authority to the government in Balochistan, as a part of their plan.
not paid, warn AI pilots
MUMBAI, AUG 17 (AGENCIES): A section of Air India pilots have threatened to stop operations if their flying allowance dues are not paid immediately. Alleging that while the salaries and perks of other employees are paid in full albeit with a delay, the same for the pilots and cabin crew are “ignored”, despite the fact that flying allowances of these two licenced categories of employees form a major chunk of their salaries. “…If the flying allowance is not paid immediately, we may not be available for flying duties,” Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) said in a communication to Air India’s director of finance Friday. “Since the company has paid the salary, the pilots will report to the office for any office duty of their expertise other than flying duties,” it added. According to a source, flying allowance are paid after two months. “As a rule, flying allowances for the month of June should have been paid on August 1, but they remain unpaid even till today,” the source said. ICPA warned the Air India management that it expects a positive confirmation on the matter, “failing which we will be forced to direct our members not to report for flying duties and only management should be held responsible in case of any disruption of flights”.
GUWAHATI, AUG 17 (AGNCIES): Myanmar-based NSCN (K) on Friday impeached its chairman Khango Konyak, an Indian-origin Naga, and elected the outfit’s founding chairman, late Shangwang Shangyung Khaplang’s nephew, Yung Aung as the new ‘acting chairman’ of the organisation, the Times Of India (TOI) report stated. Indian intelligence agencies see this development as a bloodless coup by Myanmarorigin Naga member of NSCN (K) to throw out an Indianorigin Naga leader. According to TOI, the outfit in a statement said that it was unanimously resolved to impeach Khango “to save the party from further breakdown and confusion.” The outfit has given Khango a safe passage to go wherever he likes without any harm. Aung, 45 years old, studied in Manipur till his graduation and is known to be an expert in martial arts and polo. Khango has left the NSCN
(K) headquarters in Sagaing region of Myanmar along with some of his loyalists. Few top leaders of Indian-origin are believed to have gone with Khango, the report stated. When Khaplang, a Hemi Naga from Myanmar, died in June last year and the leadership was passed on to Khango Konyak, a Naga from India, it gave Indian government hopes of breakthrough with the outfit, the only Naga outfit which is outside the peace process, as it tries to work out an all-inclusive solution to the Naga political problem. Indian security forces believed that would always be easier to talk to the leadership of Indian origin than that of Myanmar. NSCN (K) abrogated the ceasefire with the Indian government in 2015. Apart from Khango, the outfit’s powerful army commander, Niki Sumi, is also an Indian-origin Naga. The NSCN (K), which is based in Myanmar, wants an
agreement with the Myanmar government to cover ethnic Nagas living in India who are known as western Nagas. Those in Myanmar are locally known as Eastern Nagas but the outfits believe that both belong to one Naga territory despite the international border dividing them. NSCN (K) has a ceasefire agreement with Myanmar since April 2012 and has refrained from clashes since 2000. Recently the Myanmerse government has made it clear that it would not allow NSCN (K) to sign the national peace agreement if does not give up its demand for separation. According to TOI report, the NSCN (K) impeachment statement said that Khango was found guilty of grabbing absolute control of powers and functions without collective leadership, non-distribution of powers and functions exposing a one-man-government policy, which was completely in violation of the party’s constitution and discipline.
ENCSU backs ANCSU on land encroachment issue State Finance dept submits memorandum to 15th FC DIMAPUR, AUG 17 (NPN): Expressing anguish over the “current imbroglio involving the student community”, the Eastern Nagaland College Students’ Union (ENCSU) said it has unanimously decided to back the movement initiated by the All Nagaland College Students Union (ANCSU). ENCSU through its media cell maintained that ANCSU’s stand was genuine and should be pursued for the sake of students, adding that it would not allowed future of the students and the fate of Nagaland to be compromised. Also, expressing dissatisfaction over the manner in which the state government handled the whole issue, the ENCSU alleged that some government officials and politicians with vested interests were “toiling to divert the actual cause.” Further, the union reiterated that grievances raised
by ANCSU was genuine and in the interest of student community and the state at large. The union said the land encroachment issue was taken up in total consensus and coordination with the ENCSU. The union said they were equally concerned since land encroachment issue was not only confined to Kohima Science College, Jotsoma, but also various colleges across the eastern Nagaland. As such, the union said ANCSU and ENCSU would raise the land encroachment issues of all the government institutions. In this regard, the union has demanded that the state government prevent land encroachment of all the government colleges in Nagaland to avoid any untoward consequences in future. Meanwhile, ENCSU also expressed shock and dismay over the ultimatum served on ANCSU president, Katho P
Awomi, by the Jotsoma Village Council (JVC). ENCSU termed as “unfortunate” that JVC instead of using elderly wisdom to correct/guide/advice the student community “resorted to cheap intimidation and threats siding with vested interest individuals and parties.” The union said ANCSU/ENCSU had never been against a particular group/ village or community in the past and had always been about the student community including students from Jotsoma village. ENCSU, therefore, asserted that “such unqualified statement” was totally uncalled for and “definitely not in tune with the past actions of the JVC.”
‘Will not accept scholarship on installment basis’
A day after the chief minister directed immediate release of the first instalment of scholarship for the year
2017-18 to the students, the Eastern Nagaland College Students’ Union (ENCSU) Friday said it would not accept disbursement of scholarship on installation basis unless the responsible department come out with official notification from the Ministry of Tribal Affairs. In a press release, ENCSU president, M Longre Chang, and general secretary, Wangnei C Jessuhu, alleged that Post-Matric Scholarship for 2016-17 was misused by state government and delayed for many months until the union intervened leading to disbursement on instalment basis. Demanding the release of scholarship at one go, the ENCSU urged the department and the government to understand the problem faced by students and accordingly work for the welfare of students. The union has also appealed all the responsible students to remain alert.
Correspondent
KOHIMA, AUG 17 (NPN): As per the instruction of 15th Finance Commission (FC) to submit reports and memorandums in advance, the State finance department headed by its secretary Y Kikheto Sema submitted its report to the FC in New Delhi on Thursday. Kikheto told Nagaland Post that the recommendation of the 15th FC was important as it would decide the fate of State’s financial position from April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2025. He said State had prepared and submitted its report on “Statements Relating to State Finance”, “Topic Notes Relating to State Finances”, ‘Schedules & Notes Relating to Local Bodies” and a State memorandum to 15th FC secretary Arvind Mehta. According to Kikheto, Mehta expressed his happiness at the timely submission of report by the State and agreed to accept any “supplementary memorandum” from the
State, if needed. The finance secretary said the department was likely to submit supplementary memorandums to the FC as it had agreed to accept them. He said the FC was tentatively scheduled visit the State in the last week of November this year and that the State government was preparing to warmly welcome the team. Kikheto was accompanied by deputy secretary (budget), finance department, K Metha. Finance Commission is a constitutional body that makes recommendations to President of India regarding a) distribution of the proceeds of taxes between the Union and States and b) determination of principles that should govern grantsin-aid of revenues of the States out of the Consolidated Fund of India and sums to be paid to the States by way of grants-in-aid, etc. The recommendations of the commission are generally accepted by the Union government as well as the Parliament. K Y M C