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Januawry 21, 2018

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Nagaland Post www.nagalandpost.com

Vol XXVIII No. 44

SUNDAY, JANUARY 21, 2018 Pages 12 ` 5.00

Unfortunate that past govt worked only to win: Modi

Christian Coleman breaks 60m world record

Russia, China ‘growing threats’: Mattis

national, Page 7

sports, Page 12

international, Page 9

MLA disqualification Joti’s gift to Modi: AAP

NEW DELHI, JAN 20 (IANS): The Election Commission’s (EC) decision to disqualify 20 AAP MLAs for holding office of profit was poll panel chief A.K. Joti’s “parting gift” to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, senior AAP leader Gopal Rai said here on Saturday. “The disqualification of 20 AAP MLAs was his gift to Modi. What is the reason for this gift? Why has it been given? Aam Aadmi Party and the country want to know this,” he said. “Everyone in the country has only one question on their mind: What was the compulsion for him to take the decision with only two days to retire,” Rai asked. On Friday, the EC recommended to President Ram Nath Kovind to disqualify 20 AAP MLAs for holding office of profit as Parliamentary Secretaries, triggering calls for the resignation of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. The President is bound to act in accordance with the poll panel’s recommendation. On Saturday, Rai said that

JD (U) intends to remain with DAN D I M A P U R , JA N 2 0 (NPN): JD (U) held its consultative meeting in Kohima on January 13, which was addressed by the party’s national secretary general and its secretary. A press release from secretary general and chief spokesperson of JD (U), K.C. Tyagi said that JD (U) is part of the Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN) in the state going to elections in February this year. Tyagi stated that the party is consulting all the concerned political parties to finalize the alliance. He further said that state party leaders and some regional outfits will meet the party president Nitish Kumar in Delhi on January 27 for a final decision.

NBSE changes exam schedule DIMAPUR, JAN 20, (NPN): Nagaland Board of School Education (NBSE) has modified the schedule to be followed for the March 2018 examinations. A notification from NBSE chairperson, Asano Sekhose, listed the modified examination schedules. (See pg. 9 advt.)

This is it!

“The more you read about elections the less clean it becomes.” K Y M C

Gopal Rai

Joti was Principal Secretary in Gujarat when Modi was the state’s Chief Minister and he was Modi’s closest officer. The leader also rubbished claims that the AAP MLAs were given multiple chances to appear before the EC and said that lies were being spread in the media. Rai said that all notices given by the EC were replied by AAP’s lawyers and added that even during the British rule, people were heard before giving punishments. Holding out a purported order from the EC, Rai said that the EC had not given a date of hearing for the AAP MLAs, after March 13, 2017. The EC gave its opinion to the

President on a complaint by advocate Prashant Patel, a member of the Hindu Legal Cell, in June 2015, who petitioned then President Pranab Mukherjee alleging illegality in the appointment of Parliamentary Secretaries. The decision led to calls by the Congress and BJP -- who have been demanding the disqualification -- for Kejriwal’s resignation. Later on Friday, the Delhi High Court refused to grant interim relief to AAP MLAs against the Election Commission’s recommendation. Rai said the party will also launch a campaign against BJP’s decisions to allow FDI in retail and the sealing drive in the city. Delhi’s ruling AAP had been dealt a blow when the Election Commission on Friday asked the President to disqualify 20 of its MLAs for holding offices of profit. While this does not threaten the AAP government with 66 MLAs in the 70-member Assembly the BJP and Congress demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Kejriwal.

Naga Hoho determined US govt shuts down after to boycott Assembly Polls Senate rejects spending bill Correspondent

KOHIMA, JAN 20 (NPN): Even as state machineries and various political groups were gearing up for the 2018 polls, Naga Hoho (NH) has expressed its intention to boycott the polls as a stand for “solution before election.” NH president Chuba Ozukum, told Nagaland Post that Nagas cannot expect solution if the election was held. He reiterated that NH will stick to its decision since election was opposed by all civil societies and Naga Political Groups with one voice. He also said NH will boycott the polls and even stop candidates from filing nominations even if some political parties and candidates don’t accept the call. Ozukum said NSCN (I-M) and the six political groups were “very positive” in supporting the civil societies for a solution before election. He said the NH team, which was in Delhi since January 17, had met home minister Rajnath Singh, the six Naga political groups and NSCN (I-M). He said NH team will also be meeting interlocutor R.N Ravi

2 M’laya churches reject tourism package Shillong, Jan 20 (PTI): Two major churches in Meghalaya have decided not to avail of a Rs 70-crore package announced by the Centre for development of places of worship in the state. The Catholic Church and the Mawkhar Presbyterian Church have said they would give a miss to the package announced by Union Tourism Minister K J Alphons on January 8. The Parish Pastoral Council of the Cathedral of Mary Help of Christians (Catholic Church), in a statement issued yesterday, said it has not applied for any financial aid from the Centre. “We have not applied for any financial assistance from the government for face-lifting of the Cathedral. The ongoing face-

lifting is being carried out solely through the generous contributions of the faithful,” it said. Barnabas Nongbah, the council’s secretary, said the announcement of such a package ahead of elections in the state is not welcome, as it could indirectly bring the church in electoral politics.

2 held on kidnapping charges DIMAPUR, JAN 20 (NPN): Two persons have been arrested by Dimapur police on charges of kidnapping a trader in Dimapur on January 19, 2018. According to Dimapur police PRO, the east police station received information at around 2 p.m about the abduction of a businessman from his shop at MP Road, Dimapur by some unknown miscreants. Subsequently, the police swung into action and verified the spot from where the victim had been abducted. After verification, PRO said it was revealed that one Subash Kumar Jain (45), proprietor of Amar Agency (Garment shop), had reportedly gone missing from his shop at around 12:30 p.m. However, police said no one could provide any information about the victim or the miscreants. Later, PRO said CCTV footage from a few locations were checked and one suspected vehicle, Maruti Swift car (AS01-9353), was

identified. Accordingly, the vehicle particulars were passed on to agencies on surveillance duty in various areas. Finally, while conducting search and enquiry, the suspected vehicle was intercepted near Aoyimiti village junction at around 5 p.m with two NSCN (I-M) cadres on board the vehicle. The two were identified as Toki Achumi (23) Rajapeyu and Khetoho Jakhalu (23) Khapur. PRO said both were presently attached to Khekuto Jakhalu, secretary crime cell (LO) NSCN (I-M). The duo were arrested and produced at East police station along with the seized vehicle. The arrested accused revealed they had already released the victim Subash Kumar Jain around the Purana Bazaar area, PRO said, adding that they voluntarily accepted their involvement in the crime. In this connection, a case has been registered with East PS and further investigation is on, PRO said.

“There was no communication made between the ministry and the church before and after the announcement by Tourism Minister K J Alphons, and that the consultants had not officially visited the premises till date,” Nongbah said. Meghalaya is set to go to polls on February 27. The Mawkhar Presbyterian Church has made it clear they are not a party to the decision taken by the government, and do not wish to avail the package. Union Tourism Minister K J Alphons had announced the package for development of places of worship across the state, under the ‘Swadesh Darshan’ scheme of the Ministry. A total of 48 places of worship have been included under the scheme.

and other officials soon. He lamented that the Home Minister had blamed ECI for announcing the elections since ECI was also a man-made constitutional body even if it was an autonomous body. Ozukum said such attitude only showed the insincerity of the government of India in solving the Naga political issue. He said Singh assured NH that the political talks would continue even if the elections were conducted. Ozukum recalled that the prime minister assured to solve the Naga problem within 18 months of assuming office but now three years have passed. He also recalled that Ravi and Rajnath had said solution could not be possible before elections in Assam and Manipur were held. Ozukum said during the time the Nagas have been waiting for a solution, the BJP had come to power in both Manipur and Assam while the tenure of the BJP alliance with NPF in Nagaland was coming to an end. For these reasons, Ozukum said that NH would continue to pressurize the Centre to defer the elections.

Vikho-o quits NLA and NPF Correspondent

KOHIMA, JAN 20 (NPN): Advisor Mechanical Engineering and NSMDC, Er. Vikho-o Yhoshu MLA, resigned from Nagaland Legislative Assembly today “with immediate effect”. His resignation letter was addressed to the NLA speaker, Dr. Imtiwapang Aier. He also resigned from primary, active and all other memberships of the NPF party. Er. Yhosu contested from 14 Southern Angami-I AC and had won the election in 2008 and 2013 with NPF tickets. Earlier Y.Patton resigned from the NLA on January 9 while another member passed away reducing the 12th NLA to 57 members.

WASHINGTON, JAN 20 (PTI): The US government officially shutdown today for the first time in five years after the Senate rejected a short-term spending bill to keep the federal government running, marking a chaotic end to Donald Trump’s first year as president. The shutdown began at 12:01 am (local time) after a few Republicans joined Democrats in blocking the crucial measure would have provided short-term funding for the Pentagon and other federal agencies. Tr ump blamed the Democrats for the shutdown which comes exactly a year after he was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States. “Dems want a shutdown in order to help diminish the great success of the tax cuts, and what they are doing for our booming economy,” he said. Despite last minute bipartisan meetings, the bill to fund the government until February 16 did not receive the required 60 votes. The Senate voted 50-48 to block the stopgap funding measure. The short-term spending bill was passed by the House on Thursday. This

is part of the Democrats strategy to force President Trump and the Republicans to negotiate with them on illegal immigrants who are facing deportation. The effect of the shutdown will be felt most from Monday when the federal government employees will not be able to join for their work and be forced to stay at home without pay. It is estimated that more than 800,000 federal employees will be furloughed and only the essential services will remain open. The last time that a government shutdown happened was in 2013 under Obama. Earlier in the day, the Office of Management of Budget said it was preparing for “what we’re calling the Schumer Shutdown”. The Director of Office of Management of Budget Mick Mulvaney told reporters that efforts were being made to have the government shutdown less impactful than it was in 2013. “We’re going to manage the shutdown differently. We are not going to weaponize it. We’re not going to try and hurt people, especially people having to work for

this federal government. But we still need Congress to appropriate the funds,” he said. Military will still go to work, the border will still be patrolled, fire folks will still be fighting the fires and the parks will be open. But in each of these cases people will not be paid, Mulvaney said. Fanny and Freddy will be open, the post office will be open, the TSA will be open, but again all of these people will be working for nothing, which is simply not fair, he said. US Postal Services will be working. However, this is for the first time in recent history that a shutdown has taken place when both the House and the Senate as well as the White House is controlled by the same party. “This is completely unfair and uncompassionate for my Democratic colleagues to filibuster government funding, harm our troops, and jeopardise health coverage for nine million children because extreme elements of their base want illegal immigration to crowd out every other priority,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said.

5 districts to experience load-shedding DIMAPUR, JAN 20 (NPN): Mokokchung, Tuensang, Mon, Zunheboto and Longleng districts under Mokokchung Transmission Division may experience frequent and unscheduled load shedding. A press release from AE, Mokokchung Transmission Division said this was due to damages caused by the fire that broke out at Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL), in Dimapur on January 15. This necessitated the diversion of load for

the Kohima load centre from Dimapur to Mokokchung. The load centre is restricted to draw only 50MW during the shutdown period of Doyang Hydro Electric Project from 7:30 p.m to 4:00 p.m, everyday. The release requested all affected consumers to kindly bear with the inconvenience. Meanwhile, PGCIL chief manager, P. Bora informed Nagaland Post it would take at least two weeks to fully repair the damages at the Dimapur centre.

CEO Nagaland calls meeting with media DIMAPUR, JAN 20 (NPN): Chief electoral officer (CEO) Nagaland has informed all print and electronic media in the state that a meeting will be held on January 22 at 11 a.m in the conference hall, DC office Kohima. In a circular, CEO Nagaland, Abhijit Sinha, stated that the meeting had been convened with regard to the instructions of ECI

on advertisement and Paid News and the guideline issued by ECI, PCI and NBSA on media related matters. CEO also requested the following to attend the meeting: members of the state level media certification and monitoring committee; members of the state level committee to entertain applications for certification for advertisement of political

parties and candidates; station directors, AIR/Doordarshan, Kohima; media & communication officer, PIB, Kohima and representatives from all local dailies/ news channels. Pol parties meet: CEO Nagaland has also called a meeting with representative of all political parties on January 23, 11 a.m in the conference hall of DC Kohima.

KL Chishi Teenage pregnancies on the rise in NE: Report resigns from INC Imphal, Jan 20 (Agencies): In a recent study conducted by National Family Health Survey, teenage pregnancy–share of women aged 15-19 years in India had decline in the rest of India, with some of the country’s poorest states registering the highest drops however three states in the northeast region registered an increase, according to an analysis of newly released data. While teenage pregnancy dropped by more than 10 percentage points between the 2005-06 and 2015-16 rounds of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) in Jharkhand, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, it rose by less than half a percentage point in Tripura, Meghalaya and Manipur. A t 0 . 3 p e r c e n t a ge points, Tripura and Meghalaya saw the highest rise between 2005-06 and 2015-16 rounds. While the rate of teenage pregnancy in Tripura rose to 18.8% in 2015-16 from 18.5% in

2005-06, it increased to 8.6% from 8.3% in Meghalaya. Manipur saw the rate increase by 0.1 percentage points to 7.4% in 2015-16 from 7.3% in 2005-06. Overall, teenage pregnancy in India fell by 8.1 percentage points to 7.9% in 2015-16 from 16% in 2005-06. At 15.6 percentage points, teenage pregnancy declined the most in Jharkhand to 11.9% in 201516 from 27.5% in 2005-06. Tr i p u r a r e p l a c e d

Jharkhand as the state with the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in 2015-16. West Bengal, which had the second highest rate at 25.3% in 2005-06, remained second in 2015-16 with a teenage pregnancy rate of 18.3%–down 7 percentage points. Bihar (12.8 percentage points) and Uttar Pradesh (10.5 percentage points) saw the second and third highest drops. Teenage pregnancy among Hindus fell the most

at 8.6 percentage points between 2005-06 and 201516. Muslims (7 percentage points) and Buddhist/NeoBuddhists (6.9 percentage points) saw the second and third highest drops. Among communities, scheduled castes (SCs) and tribes (STs)–discriminated communities eligible for affirmative action–witnessed the largest fall in the period. While teenage pregnancy fell by 11 percentage points to 8.8% in 2015-16 from 19.8% in 2005-06 for SCs, it decreased by 10.6 percentage points to 10.5% from 21.1% for the STs. The difference in teenage pregnancy rates between urban and rural areas fell to 4.2 percentage points in 2015-16 from 10.4 percentage points in 2005-06. While rural areas saw a drop of 9.9 percentage points from 19.1% to 9.2% in 11 years to 2015-16, urban areas witnessed a drop of 3.7 percentage points to 5% from 8.7%.

DIMAPUR, JAN 20 (NPN): Former chief minister of Nagaland and veteran Congress leader, KL Chishi, on Saturday tendered his resignation from all levels of the Indian National Congress (INC) with immediate effect. His resignation comes two days after AICC president, Rahul Gandhi, approved a coordination committee for the ensuing assembly elections in Nagaland in which Chishi is also a member. In his resignation letter addressed to NPCC president, Chishi said he could not continue to remain in the INC anymore in view of the “trust deficit” despite repeated submission and advice to the appropriate authority of the INC for over one year. Chishi said he was therefore tendering his resignation from all party responsibilities and from the primary membership of the party. Meanwhile, Chishi has called for a press conference on Sunday at his Chekiye village residence at 1 p.m. K Y M C


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