Nagaland Post This issue 12 + 4 = 16 Pages @ ` 5.00
www.nagalandpost.com
Vol XXVIII No. 256
DIMAPUR, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2018 Pages 16 ` 5.00
Delhi govt to enhance quality of education in schools
Liverpool see off 10-man Crystal Palace
Greece’s modern-day ‘Odyssey’ is over: Tsipras
national, Page 11
sports, Page 15
international, Page 13
Spurt in dengue cases in State
New Governors Centre releases Rs 600 cr aid to Kerala appointed for Health Ministry said would supply three crore seven states UAE offers Rs 700 cr; India itchlorine in addition TALLY SHOOTS UP TO 73; DENGUE EPIDEMIC IN CHÜMOUKEDIMA AREA NEW DELHI, AUG 21 unlikely to accept foreign aid to one croretablets tablets supplied (AGENCIES): Centre on earlier and that 30 tonnes of
Staff Reporter
D I M A P U R , AU G 2 1 (NPN): With another 26 new cases of dengue reported in Dimapur and Chümoukedima within a week, the total dengue cases rose from 47 earlier to 73 presently in Nagaland. Out of 73 confirmed dengue cases, Chümoukedima tops the list with 67 cases prompting officials to describe the situation in the area as epidemic. Out of the 131 samples recently collected from both government and private hospitals, 26 tested positive for dengue, of which 22 are from Chümoukedima while the remaining are from Supply, Nagarjan, Kuda, Burma camp and Lingrijan colonies. These cases were confirmed by the Sentinel Surveillance Site Lab (SSSL) at District Hospital Dimapur (DHD). Talking to Nagaland Post about the rise of cases, mostly from Chümoukedima, chief medical officer (CMO) Dr K Vikato Kinimi claimed the health department was doing its best, but said overall community
Gov greets on Id D I M A P U R , AU G 2 1 (NPN): Nagaland governor, PB Acharya, has conveyed greetings to the people of Nagaland on the occasion of Id-Ul-Zuha and wished for harmony and brotherhood in the society. Id-Ul-Zuha, also known as the sacrifice festival or Bakrid Id, is the second of the two Muslim festivals celebrated worldwide each year. In his message, Acharya expressed his hope that the sacred occasion would usher in goodwill and harmony and further strengthen the values of composite society everywhere. Governor prayed that “Allah’s blessings light up the path oneness and lead to happiness and success on the occasion.”
Power outage in Mon, Longleng, parts of Mkg
D I M A P U R , AU G 2 1 (NPN): Power department has informed supply of power to Mon, Longleng and Changtongya and Tuli areas of Mokokchung has been disrupted due to snapping of conductor along 66KV Mokokchung–Tuli transmission line. In a press release, Mokokchung subtransmission division SDO (Trans) Er. Shilu Lkr stated that the department was working on a war footing to restore normal power supply at the earliest. Affected electricity consumers have been requested to bear with the inconvenience.
This is it!
“This time you’ll be happy to note that we’re not demanding tax.We’re on a mercy mission for calamity.” K Y M C
participation was also required. He mentioned that the health department had discussed with Chümoukedima EAC on initiating certain social measures by collaborating with GBs and village councils. Kinimi said Nagaland Development Outreach, in collaboration with the health department, had called for observing one dry day in a week whereby all containers around the house like flower pots, flower vases, tyres, buckets, etc, were emptied and dried. The CMO said while the health department would continue playing its role in curbing the spread of the vector-borne disease, every household too should collectively participate in controlling dengue breeding ground in their surroundings. For combating dengue, only government intention would be futile, he added. Meanwhile, Urban Vector Borne Disease Scheme (UVBDS) assistant director Kikolul Khieya mentioned that around 20 staff was on the field studying the mosquito presence across eight colonies in a week
and also studying presence of Aedis Aegypti larva. He said, as per the study, the container index was very high, confirming failure of the community and public to prevent dengue outbreak. He stressed public had to extend cooperation by cleaning their surroundings. Dimapur district vector borne officer Dr Imtiwabong Aier said no cases of death had been reported till date and urged people not to panic but maintain cleanliness. When contacted, EAC and Chumukedima administrator Thejavizo Nakhro claimed that in collaboration with health department awareness programmes and campaigns were being conducted with youth, mother, church and business communities, complemented by mass social work. Agreeing that something ought to be done to control the spread of disease before it became an epidemic, Nakhro remarked that everyone needed to be aware about dengue breeding grounds and keep the surroundings clean.
He said, if anyone was found having dengue symptoms, he or she should be immediately rushed to the hospital for treatment and that those who tested positive should undergo the ELISA Test at District Hospital in order for confirmation. About ELISA IgM test, DHD blood bank in-charge Dr Temsu said it was a standard test adopted under National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP) for detecting IgM antibody to dengue virus. He explained that IgM antibody appears from third to fifth day of illness, peaks at two weeks and becomes undetectable after two or three months. This test kit is manufactured and quality controlled by National Institute of Virology, Pune, the country’s premier viral institute and issued free of cost for use in national programme. ELISA IgM dengue test is used as standard test in national programmes. Temsu said in Nagaland ELISA test was only available at SSSL DHD, which was manned by NVBDCP and was free of cost.
Tuesday appointed new Governors for seven statesJammu & Kashmir, Bihar, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Tripura, Sikkim and Meghalaya. Satya Pal Malik, current Governor of Bihar, has been deputed to J&K replacing NN Vohra. Lalji Tandon has been appointed as new Governor of Bihar. Baby Rani Maurya, a former legislator of the BJP in UP, has been appointed as new Governor of Uttarakhand. Tathagata Roy, an RSS ideologue and incumbent Governor of Tripura, has been deputed to Meghalaya replacing incumbent Governor Ganga Prasad, who has been assigned the charge of neighbouring Sikkim. Former BJP leader and Bihar cabinet minister, Satyadev Narayan Arya, has been appointed as the Governor of Haryana. The incumbent Governor in the state is Kaptan Singh Solanki, who has now been deputed to Tripura.
Wakching New Model College to become functional soon
Under construction building of New Model College at Wakching. (photo: Mary Konyak) Correspondent
KOHIMA, AUG 21 (NPN): Funded under Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA), classes in the longawaited Wakching New Model College in Mon district are likely to begin by next academic session upon completion of its construction work. Higher and technical education minister Temjen
Imna Along informed Nagaland Post that he would be visiting the new college in September and that, if things went well, it should start functioning by the next academic session. He, however, added that he would be able to give a better picture of the technicalities involved and the ground reality only after his visits to the college, stressing that it must have “quality
infrastructure”. According to sources from Wakching town, though boundary fencing of the college was yet to be constructed, the overall construction might not take long for completion as 60-70% construction work was complete. During the Independence Day function here, chief minister Neiphiu Rio had announced that Wakching New Model College was
Political slug-fest over GDP data NEW DELHI, AUG 21 (AGENCIES): An official report that suggests India recorded the highest growth under the Congressled UPA has vanished from the website of the Union Ministry of Statistics. It was “a draft”, the ministry now says of the report that has deeply embarrassed the government and triggered political sparring. The back series data on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was prepared by the Committee on Real Sector Statistics set up by the National Statistical Commission and released on the ministry’s website. It reappeared buried in the “drafts” section with an added note, saying this report should not be quoted. Comparing the growth rates between the old series (2004-05) and the new series based on 2011-12 prices, the report said a
record 10.8% GDP was recorded in 2010-11 under the Manmohan Singh government. “Truth has triumphed. The back series calculation of GDP has proved that the best years of economic growth were the UPA years 2004-2014,” tweeted P Chidambaram, who was Finance Minister in the Congress regime. Chidambaram said the average growth rate under the UPA-1 government was 8.87 per cent, during which it also clocked double digit growth of 10.08 per cent in 2006-07. In the UPA’s second term, it was 7.39 per cent, he said, citing the GDP data. Chidambaram also accused the current government of losing the economic momentum because of “demonetisation, flawed implementation of GST and tax terrorism”.
The BJP hit back, with party spokesperson Sambit Patra saying, “Headline figures do not subvert the fact that Congress-led UPA rule was marked by reckless lending, macro-economic instability, high inflation, policy paralysis and highest corruption”. Joining the debate, Union minister Arun Jaitley said the policies of the UPA to promote growth led to macro-economic instability. During the UPA regime, “fiscal discipline was compromised and the banking system was advised to go in for reckless lending, notwithstanding the fact that it would eventually put the banks at a risk. And yet when the UPA moved out of power in 2014, the last three year record, even in terms of growth, was less than modest,” Jaitley said in a Facebook post.
being established with a campus area of 18 acres. He said the college was nearing completion and would soon have separate administrative and academic blocks, separate hostels for boys and girls, library, laboratory with lab/office equipment and furniture. Former parliamentary secretary for higher education Deo Nukhu laid the foundation stone of Wakching New Model College, which is located about 30 km away from Mon district headquarters, on June 27, 2015. Local MLA of Wakching Yollow Konyak donated the land for establishment of the college free of cost. The college is being established under RUSA, a national higher education mission under the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development. Detail project report of the college was estimated at Rs 12 crore in 2015.
People spent 85 bn hours on WhatsApp in 3 months: study SAN FRANCISCO, AUG 21 (IANS): Among all the social media platforms, people globally spent a whopping 85 billion hours on the Facebook-owned WhatsApp in the last three months. According to a Forbes report late on Monday, the data released by the US-based app analytics company Apptopia showed that over the past three months, users spent 85 billion hours on WhatsApp that has 1.5 billion users in the world,— or “11.425 hours for every human being on the planet”. Conversely, users spent 30 billion hours on its parent company Facebook. “It’s clear that WhatsApp is the global messaging app of choice,” Apptopia’s spokesperson Adam Blacker was quoted as saying.
NEW DELHI, AUG 21 (IANS/PTI): Centre on Tuesday released Rs 600 crore to the Kerala government for relief work in the flood-ravaged state and decided to waive Customs Duty and Goods and Services Tax (GST) on relief materials being imported. The money released included Rs 500 crore announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Rs 100 crore by Home Minister Rajnath Singh during their visits to the state, said a Union Home Ministry statement. The money was released after the sixth consecutive meeting of the National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC) chaired by Cabinet Secretary P.K. Sinha here. The Finance Ministry informed the NCMC that it had decided to “waive the Customs Duty and GST on the relief materials being imported to aid the people in the flood-affected areas in Kerala”. The Department of Food and Public Distribution said it had made additional allocation of 89,540
tonnes of rice as per the state government’s request while the Consumer Affairs Department said it was sending additional quantities of green gram and Tur dal, in addition to 100 tonnes of pulses supplied earlier. Public Sector Oil Marketing Companies have contributed Rs 25 crore to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund in Kerala, the NCMC said. Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has opened special points in the flood affected areas for LPG distribution and permission had been granted, in coordination with the state government, for noncertified vehicles to carry LPG cylinders. Indian Railways said it had so far supplied 24 lakh litres of drinking water in addition to 2.7 lakh water bottles. Another 14 lakh litres water was available at Ernakulam district. The Railway Ministry said it had also made arrangements for supply of bed sheets and blankets and that trains on all sections had resumed.
bleaching powder and 1.76 lakh sanitary pads had also been sent. Ministry of Food Processing Industries said essential spices, salt, tea and coffee were being supplied as per the state government’s requirement. India unlikely to accept foreign aid: Centre is unlikely to accept any foreign financial assistance for flood relief operations in Kerala, official sources said. They said government has taken a considered decision to rely solely on domestic efforts to tide over the situation. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has offered USD 100 million (around Rs 700 crore) as financial assistance for flood relief operation in Kerala. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, called up Prime Minister Modi and made the offer for assistance, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said in Thiruvananthapuram. The government of Maldives has also decided to donate USD 50,000 (Rs 35 lakh) for flood affected people in Kerala.
Expedite Mid-Day-Meal CIHSR files FIR against fake video scheme probe: NSF DIMAPUR, AUG 21 (NPN):
DIMAPUR, AUG 21 (NPN): Naga Students’ Federation (NSF) has appealed to the State Vigilance Commission to expedite the ongoing investigation process into the irregularities and mismanagement of Mid Day Meal (MDM) scheme. In a memorandum addressed to the state vigilance commissioner, the NSF president, Kesosul said the federation and its federating units while carrying out education tour 2018 visited various government schools and found that MDM scheme was not provided to the students. NSF said the scheme had miserably failed in its implementation and deprived the students of their rights and benefits. For the academic year 2018, NSF said most of the schools were not provided MDM and many schools were supplied with only dal (dried, split pulses) and cooking cost without supply of any other commodities compelling the school management to sell a few bags of dal in order to purchase rice and other commodities to provide meal to the students. Impressing upon the vigilance commissioner to expedite the investigation process, the NSF demanded that report be produced within 30 days on receipt of its letter. Federation also demanded probe into the discrepancies of MDM scheme for the year 2017 & 2018 and strict effective disciplinary measure be initiated to penalise the defaulters of the implementing agencies.
Christian Institute of Health Sciences and Research (CIHSR) has clarified that a video being circulated on social media group WhatsApp was false and that a complaint had been lodged with the police regarding this. According to a statement issued by management of the hospital, a video was being circulating in WhatsApp of a child with a very abnormal looking eye and being carried by its mother. And a lady at the background claims that the child developed the grossly abnormal condition in its eye after eye drops were administered at CIHSR, where it was brought. The hospital asserted that the allegation made by the lady was false. The CIHSR management explained that the child was brought from Assam by nuns of Missionaries of Charity on August 6 and 7 to the Ophthalmology Department of CIHSR. (Cont’d on p-7)
Planning dept refutes PDR allegation D I M A P U R , AU G 2 1 (NPN): Denying allegations of any irregularities levelled against it by People for Democratic Rights (PDR), planning & co-ordination department has come out with detail list of beneficiaries of Chief Minister’s Corpus Fund (CMCF) and other financial transactions According to a statement issued by additional development commissioner of planning & co-ordination department Augustine M Yanthan, altogether 15 candidates who had cleared UPSC Prelims were provided Rs 25,000 in 2016-17. The details of the candidates, including their roll and mobile phone numbers, too were provided. And out of Rs 20 lakh earmarked under CMCF for provision of incentive to candidates who clear the UPSC Prelims, Rs 3,75,000 was thus utilised. The balance amount of Rs 16,25,000
was utilised to meet the expenditure on purchase of computers, consumable items and stationery as the administrative expenses was not provided during 2015-16, the department pointed out. It, however, claimed that this was done after observing formalities and obtaining necessary approvals. Similarly, the department explained that Rs 25 lakh was earmarked for candidates clearing UPSC Prelims in 2017-18, out of which Rs 2,75,000 was utilised by paying 11 candidates Rs 25,000 each. And the balance of Rs 22,25,000 would be carried forward to the current year 2018-19, the department added. The list of 11 beneficiaries with their complete details too was provided by the department. The additional development commissioner further furnished complete
details of 71 beneficiaries for which a total amount of Rs 1.90 crore under CMCF was released in 2017-2018. He also provided a list of 45 individuals with their complete details who were provided financial assistance in the second batch and for whom a total of Rs 50 lakh was spent under CMCF in 2017-18. Stating that an additional fund of Rs 1 crore was allocated and placed under CMCF in 2016-17 with specific instructions, the department claimed that the amount was drawn and disbursed to 10 beneficiaries, whose details too were provided. On the PDR allegation of double drawal for six works, Yanthan pointed out that the drawal authority for the six works was issued on November 3, 2017, but was withdrawn by finance department even before the drawal authority (Cont’d on p-7) K Y M C