August 25, 2020

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Nagaland Post www.nagalandpost.com

Vol XXX No. 260

DIMAPUR, TUESDAY, AUGUST 25, 2020 Pages 8 ` 4.00

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Sonia continues; CWC maintains status quo

NEW DELHI, AUG 24 (AGENCIES): The stormy Congress Working Committee meeting on Monday ended with rival camps striking a common note of amicability and with the news that Sonia Gandhi will continue as interim party president as of now. She has asked Congress general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal to convene an All India Congress Committee (AICC) session to choose a new president. CWC meeting saw Gandhi family loyalists and the rebel camp (consisting of 23 senior leaders who had expressed the need for the party’s democratic overhaul in a letter to Sonia Gandhi) attacking each other in the morning. A second note of discord came to the fore when another rebel leader Ghulam Nabi Azad offered to resign if allegations made by some Congress leaders outside the CWC, that the letter was written at the behest of or in collusion with the BJP are proven to be true. Rahul Gandhi and his aides were also reported to have attacked the 23 leaders for having written a letter to Sonia Gandhi at a time

School reopening: DoSE of warns fake info on social media D I M A P U R , AU G 2 4 (NPN): The directorate of school education (DoSE) has clarified that a pamphlet being circulated in social media was a rough work created with dummy dates for the purpose of discussion at higher level and was not an authorised/approved notification. In a clarification note, principal director Shanavas C said the department’s attention has been drawn to unauthorised information being circulated on social media regarding re-opening of schools in Nagaland for classes 9 to 12 from the month of October. Advising everyone not to circulate the “unauthorised pamphlet” and also not to be misled by such unauthorised information, Shanavas also warned that appropriate disciplinary action would be initiated against the staff who leaked the rough work to unauthorised persons without the approval of competent authority. It may be recalled that the DoSE, in July, had warned schools that reopening of schools in any manner in violation of the ‘lockdown order’ is strictly prohibited.

This is it!

“Why not act as facilitators for peace between the ruling party and governor now that we’re out of the JLF?.” K Y M C

File photo of Sonia Gandhi with his son, Rahul Gandhi during Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting in 2019. (PTI)

(August 7) when the Congress was in the middle of Rajasthan crisis. Rahul is also believed to have taken offence at the aggressive posturing by the rebel leaders when they knew that the Congress president was unwell. However, after attacks and counter-attacks, the CWC appears to have seen a truce struck between the two camps. At least a unanimous resolution that was passed at the end of the meeting indicated so. Addressing a press conference, Venugopal said that the meeting was attended by around 52 leaders, including all the CWC members, special and permanent invitees, and four chief ministers. “All of them spoke in the seven hour long meeting,

following which the CWC passed an unanimous resolution,” he said. CWC reportedly also agreed to form a committee to assist Sonia to address the concerns raised by the 23 leaders in the days to come. Letter’s signatories became focus, not the content: The letter had raised several concerns and demands — the need for elections to the CWC, a leadership that is visible and active on the field, and an urgent constitution of a central parliamentary board, among other things. The signatories said none of these concerns were addressed and this was an “opportunity lost”, said a party leader, who was in the meeting.

“It’s like the actual content of the letter and concerns flagged were circumvented, and the focus was on who wrote the letter and why,” the leader added. Three of the signatories, Manish Tewari, Kapil Sibal and Shashi Tharoor, arrived at Azad’s residence soon after the meeting got over to discuss the “future course of action”. “Everyone unanimously praised the leadership of Mrs Gandhi. The content of the letter wasn’t addressed as much as why such a letter was written in the first place,” said the leader. Many leaders who were signatories of the letter, also emerged as the first ones to praise Sonia’s leadership

Congress dissenters meet

Some senior Congress leaders, including Kapil Sibal and Shashi Tharoor, met at their senior colleague Ghulam Nabi Azad’s house here on Monday evening after the Congress Working Committee debated their letter to the party’s interim chief Sonia Gandhi seeking urgent organisational reforms. The meeting was also

Nagaland COVID-19 tally 3714 COVID-19 STATUS AS ON august 24, 2020 District

Asymptomatic

Dimapur 651 Kiphire 1 Kohima 476 Longleng 2 Mokokchung 3 Mon 74 Peren 1 Phek 0 Tuensang 7 Wokha 4 Zunheboto 61 Total 1280

ACTIVE CASES RecovMiTotal Symptomatic Death ered grated Cases Mild Moderate 20 1 1178 1862 9* 3 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 597 1076 0 3 0 0 3 5 0 0 0 0 17 20 0 0 0 0 194 270 0 2 0 0 265 266 0 0 0 0 31 31 0 0 0 0 45 52 0 0 0 0 17 21 0 0 0 0 49 110 0 0 20 1 2396 3714 9 8

*1 death is Covid-19 positive but not due to Covid-19

D I M A P U R , AU G 2 4 (NPN): Nagaland on August 24 registered 28 new COVID-19 positive cases-24 in Kohima, 2 in Dimapur, 1 each in Longleng and Zunheboto, taking the tally to 3714 cases. Out of the 3,714 positive cases, the total active cases are 1301, 2396 recovered, 9 deaths and 8

migrated. As per the severity of symptoms, 1,280 active cases are asymptomatic, 20 mild and 1 moderate case. Further, out of 3,714 cases, the distribution across various categories include-1,609 cases from Armed Forces, 1213 returnees, 246 frontline workers and 646 traced contacts.

during the CWC meeting. Sonia hurt, but says ‘let’s move on’: A second party source said Sonia felt “hurt” over the letter. “She said such concerns should be raised and kept internal, not leaked to the media,” the source said. Rahul reiterated her statement, saying it was on “the party’s insistence” that Sonia agreed to accept the post of the interim president one year ago. “But in her closing remarks, she made it very clear that she holds no ill-will or grudges against anyone, including the signatories of the letter,” a second party leader said. It was a very “let’s forget and move on approach’,” the leader added.

India’s COVID tally breaches 31L mark

PTI adds: A single-day spike of 61,408 COVID19 cases took India’s virus caseload past the 31-lakh mark on Monday, a day after it crossed 30 lakh, while recoveries surged to 23,38,035 pushing the recovery rate to over 75 per cent, according to the Union Health Ministry data. India’s COVID-19 caseload mounted to 31,06,348, while the death toll climbed to 57,542 with 836 fatalities being reported in a span of 24-hours, the data updated at 8 am showed. The COVID-19 case fatality rate has declined to 1.85 per cent, while the recovery rate has risen to 75.27 per cent. There are 7,10,771 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country which comprises 22.88% of the total caseload, the data stated.

attended by Mukul Wasnik and Manish Tewari, along with some other signatories to the letter who were present in the national capital, sources said. None of the leaders agreed to comment on their deliberations, which took place soon after the CWC meet ended. Only a few of the 23 signatories are part of the CWC.

Petrol prices hiked again D I M A P U R , AU G 2 4 (NPN): State-owned oil marketing companies (OMCs) increased petrol prices across the four metros for the fifth consecutive day Monday. Diesel prices, however, remained the same across the metros. According to IOCL website, price of the petrol in the national capital was increased by 13 paise to Rs 81.62 a litre from the previous day price of Rs 81.49 a litre. After Monday’s rate revision, petrol price in Dimapur stood at Rs.86.93 per litre while in the state capital petrol price increased to Rs.87.83 per litre. Currently, fuel prices vary in different parts of the country due to factors such as price of crude oil, foreign exchange rate and local taxes. State-run oil corporations, account for the majority of fuel outlets in the country, and review the rates of petrol and diesel on a daily basis.

China launches advanced warship for Pak international, Page 7

NIDA warns of ‘repercussive measures’ if govt fails to act D I M A P U R , AU G 2 4 (NPN): Nagaland In-Service Doctors’ Association (NIDA) has warned of “repercussive measures” that will jeopardize the entire health services throughout the state if the concern authority failed to take exemplary punishment as demanded by the Dimapur unit against those IRB personnel allegedly involved in the August 21 assault on Dr. Atoka Wotsa. In a press note, NIDA president Dr. Ritu Thurr and secretary Dr. Ahu Sekhose stated that the tolerance level of the association has reached its tipping point due to repeat of such abhorrent incidences in the recent COVID 19 times. It was lear nt that NIDA had warned of calling for a one-day complete shutdown of all medical services throughout Nagaland on August 26 from 6 a.m., with emergency services to remain functional, if the authority concern failed to act. According to the press note, NIDA said that in spite of the barbaric assault by erring police personnel

on Dr Nosezol Sezo on April 3, 2020 at Dimapur and Dr Mongshithung on April 17, 2020 at Wokha, NIDA, as a matured organization, had refrained from taking any drastic action, keeping in mind the sacred responsibility of public health as its top priority. NIDA said that unless an exemplary action was immediately initiated by concerned authority as demanded by the NIDA unit, Dimapur, the association will be compelled to resort to undesirable repercussive measures which will totally jeopardize the entire health services throughout the state. Nagaland In-Service Doctors’ Association therefore sought the support of public and NGOs to ensure timely justice to the aggrieved. It was also learnt that NIDA Dimapur unit had deferred its decision to shut down all medical services following the request made by the parent body president. NIDA Dimapur unit, in its August 23 meeting

minutes, stated that it had handed over the August 21 case to the parent body for “further perusal till the logical conclusion of the case on urgent basis.” It may be mentioned that the state government on August 23, 2020 instituted an inquiry committee to probe into the alleged assault on a doctor, Dr. Atoka Wotsa by police personnel on August 21 night. In an order issued through the principal secretary (Home), Abhijit Sinha, the 3-member inquiry committee will be headed by commissioner & secretary Rural Development, Neposo Theluo and two others as members-- secretary Law and Justice Khanrinla Koza and additional deputy commissioner Niuland, Rosy Margaret Athrila. The committee has been directed to submit its report within seven days of the date of issue of this notification (August 23, 2020). The 3-member panel was constituted in supersession to the independent inquiry formed by deputy commissioner Dimapur.

Nagaland Gov calls on Jitendra Singh

(L) R.N. Ravi calling on Dr. Jitendra Singh in New Delhi on Monday. (Twitter)

NEW DELHI, AUG 24 (PTI): Nagaland Governor R.N. Ravi on Monday called on Union Minister Jitendra Singh and discussed with him the progress of various development projects in the North Eastern state. Singh, the Union Minister for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), said that soon

after assuming office in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had stated that every effort would be made to bring the northeastern region at par with the more developed regions of the country, an official statement said. In the last six years, not only developmental gaps were bridged successfully, but the Northeast has

also gained psychological confidence, he said. The minister underlined that all sections of society are ready to move under Prime Minister Modi, the statement said. Singh also tweeted that he had a fruitful meeting with Governor of Nagaland, R N Ravi and exchanged views on various state-related issues.

SCS Chessore bags national award for Innovation in Edn Prashant Bhushan refuses to apologise to SC for his 2 tweets against judiciary D I M A P U R , AU G 2 4 (NPN): Innovating learning tools adopted by St Christopher School, Chessore in the ongoing COVID-19-incuded school shutdown to ensure continuity in education have won the school the maiden “Pallikkutam National Award for Innovation in Education, 2020”. Constituted by Rajagiri Media, Kerala, in association with Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode, Federal Bank Ltd and Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, the Pallikkutam National Award had 55 participants from all over the country. The first prize comprised Rs one lakh and a citation, while the second and third prizes comprised Rs 50,000 and Rs 25,000 respectively. According to the organisers, the objectives of the award are to honour the

educational leadership of the nation who managed to provide education despite the disruption caused by COVID-19-induced lockdown, showcase the innovative ways in education as a model for other institutions to follow and to spread the praxis of excellence in education and make the quality of education universal. Started by Diocese of Kohima in 2015 due to the specific difficulties faced by people following communal clashes, St Christopher School is a middle school up to class VIII and has about 500 students with 12 staff.

Though the existing infrastructure is bare minimum, the diocese is trying to build a proper building against all odds, especially considering its remote location and very poor road condition. Despite the lockdown, the school management under leadership of Rev Fr Loyola Anthony motivated the teachers to realise that learning is not confined within the four walls of classrooms, but can also take place at home with proper guidance. But being located in a remote area, technological interventions like virtual classes, online tests, use of

smartphones and televisions were not feasible. Hence, the school authority relied more on direct intervention by allowing children to do more home-based activities to learn and grow by exploring their own creativity. An awareness campaign was carried out to prepare them to combat COVID-19 through skits, placards, poster and booklets. For those who could afford smartphones, notes and assignments were shared and online tests conducted through WhasApp. For those who had no access to smartphones, school office was kept partly open every day for few hours by following SOPs of the government so that they could collect prepared notes, assignments and project works and gather information on various programmes initiated by the school. And the result was 100% participation.

NEW DELHI, AUG 24 (PTI): Activist-lawyer Prashant Bhushan refused to offer an apology to the Supreme Court on Monday for his two tweets against the judiciary saying what he expressed represented his bona fide belief which he continued to hold. “An insincere apology would amount to the contempt of my conscience and of an institution”, Bhushan said in his supplementary statement filed in the suo motu contempt case against him by the top court, taking note of advocate Anuj Saxena’s complaint. An apology for expression of beliefs, conditional or unconditional, would be insincere, he said. On August 20, the top court had granted time till August 24 to Bhushan to reconsider his

Prashant Bhushan

“defiant statement” refusing to apologise and tender “unconditional apology” for contemptuous tweets against the judiciary and rejected his submission that quantum of punishment be decided by another bench. Bhushan said as an officer of court he believes as a duty to speak up when he believes there is a deviation from its sterling record. “Therefore I expressed myself in good faith, not to malign the Supreme Court

or any particular Chief Justice, but to offer constructive criticism so that the court can arrest any drift away from its long-standing role as a guardian of the Constitution and custodian of peoples’ rights,” he said. Bhushan further said that an apology cannot be a mere incantation and any apology has to, as the court has itself put it, be sincerely made. The apex court on August 14 had held Bhushan guilty of criminal contempt for his two derogatory tweets against the judiciary saying they cannot be said to be a fair criticism of the functioning of the judiciary made in the public interest. He faces simple imprisonment of up to six months or with a fine of up to Rs 2,000 or with both as punishment. K Y M C


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