June 7, 2017

Page 1

Nagaland Post This issue 12 + 4 = 16 Pages @ ` 4.00

www.nagalandpost.com

Vol XXVII No. 181

DIMAPUR, wednesday, june 7, 2017 Pages 16 ` 4.00

Artiste comparing Gen Rawat with Dyers stirs row

India beat Nepal 2-0 in international friendly

Kuwait mediating to solve Gulf crisis: Qatar

national, Page 7

sports, Page 16

international, Page 13

Centre mulls to replace UGC, AICTE with HEERA

Secretaries asked to identify concrete goals to be achieved by 2022

NEW DELHI, JUN 6 (AGENCIES): Big-bang education reform is on its way - the Modi government is all set to scrap the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and replace them with one higher education regulator, tentatively christened Higher Education Empowerment Regulation Agency (HEERA). The decision to go ahead with this radical change, long advocated by experts but never implemented, was taken after a meeting on education chaired by the prime minister in early March. If required, and since setting up a new regulator may take some time, amendments to existing rules will be considered as an interim reform measure. Senior officials who spoke off record told ET that work is on at a rapid pace to frame the HEERA legislation. The human resource development (HRD) ministry and the Niti Aayog

are working on the new law. A committee that has, among others, Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant and higher education secretary KK Sharma as members, is working on the detailed blueprint. One senior official said replacing UGC and AICTE by a single regulator will be the “cleanest, most sweeping reform” that will “eliminate all overlaps in jurisdiction and also do away with regulatory provisions that may no longer be relevant”. While the idea of replacing multiple regulatory authorities with a single and streamlined one is not new - several committees including the Yashpal Committee and the National Knowledge Commission of the UPA era and the Hari Gautam Committee set up by this government have recommended the same the reform never happened. Officials told ET that the new regulatory legislation is likely to be short and clean and will outline minimum standards focused on

China cautions India, others against any informal alliance

BJP MLAs cannot dictate on party matters: Lhoungu

BEIJING, JUN 6 (AGENCIES): China on Tuesday cautioned India and other Asian countries against forming informal alliances to counter its increasing assertiveness as they cannot rely on the US in Trump era. “I have seen the reports but I doubt the authenticity of these reports,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told media briefing here. She was commenting on reports from Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore that India, Japan, Australia and Vietnam were contemplating informal alliances in view of the uncertainties of US policies under President Donald Trump. If those reports are authentic, it demonstrate that Cold War mindset has not been eradicated and “some people approach and handle the country to country relations with zero sum opinion,” she said. Hua said China stands for common comprehensive and sustainable security idea for building of cooperation of a new international relation with win cooperate at its core. “Any confrontation and containment will have no way out. Hope relevant people can put China’s development in perspective,” Hua said.

This is it!

“If more than a dozen parties fight next election, a party that wins 10 seats could be the single largest party.” K Y M C

outcomes. They also said separation of technical and nontechnical education is outmoded and out of sync with global practices, and that a single regulator will bring in greater synergy among institutions and in framing curricula. The new body will also be empowered to take strong penal action when necessary. Since bringing in new legislation and repealing AICTE and UGC Acts may be a time-consuming process, interim measures are likely and amendments to these Acts and modification of UGC regulations are among options being considered. The idea to replace the multiple regulatory authorities with a single and streamlined one is not new – several committees including the Yashpal Committee and the National Knowledge Commission of the UPA era and the Hari Gautam Committee set up by this government have recommended the same – the reform never happened.

PM directs secys to reach out to 100 most backward distts

opportunity to transform the lives of one-sixth of humanity. “He asked them to identify concrete goals to be achieved by 2022 - the 75th anniversary of Independence,” a PMO release said. “It was a brainstorming exercise where secretaries suggested what all steps can be taken even as they highlighted achievements. The focus was how we all can work together and the PM wants us to bring major improvements in the 100 most backward districts,” an official who attended the meeting said. Modi also highlighted how working together has brought expected results in initiatives such as financial inclusion (Jan Dhan Yojana) and (Mission Indradhanush) in the last three years.

ed members were all invited for the meeting. With such members in the meeting good outcome cannot be expected, he said. While not denying that there were differences within the party with some dissident members, Lhoungu said the party activities and functioning was normal. The president also openly stated that among the four BJP legislators, except for one, the other three were non-cooperative and functions on their own. The president also said some of the members were against the alliance with NPF and this was one of the reasons that grouping within the party cropped up. He advised the party men and legislators to maintain “certain limits” in going against the government since they were in alliance, as DAN partners. When asked whether allotting him as parliamentary secretary status had

restricted him from pointing out anomalies in the government, Lhoungu said whether he was allotted or not, being alliance partner “we refrain from speaking ill against the government”. Lhoungu admitted that the party was not at all happy with the “system of the government”. Until Centre decides something about it the party has to remain as alliance partners, he said.

Dr. Singh attacks govt over ‘GDP slump’

CNTC lauds new Ao Senden, Sumi Hoho team

Correspondent

KOHIMA, JUN 6 (NPN): Reacting to the statement issued by BJP unit Political Affairs Committee (PAC), State BJP unit president Visasolie Lhoungu on Tuesday categorically pointed out that the BJP unit being a political party, every move/ resolution was political in nature and that it was not the PAC’s business to decide the party affairs. Interacting with media persons here on the side lines of the launching of the ‘great membership drive’, Lhoungu said “legislators may want us to consult on all matters, however party line was different, thereby the legislators cannot dictate the party and instead they should respect the decision of the party.” He said all issues were discussed and action was initiated accordingly. With regard to shifting of the party office to Kohi-

NEW DELHI, JUN 6 (AGENCIES): Expressing concern over the decline in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the fiscal 2016-17, former prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on Tuesday said the slump indicates that India’s economic growth slowed down sharply primarily due demonetisation. “ I n d i a ’s e c o n o m i c growth has slowed down sharply, driven primarily by the notebandi announcement of November 8 2016. Gross Value Added (GVA), a true sub-measure of economic activity, has also experienced a steep and sustained fall,” Singh said in a statement. He further said that the private sector investment has collapsed and the Indian economy is running on just one engine of public spending. “The GVA growth of industry has fallen from 10.7% in March 2016 to just 3.8% in March 2017, a decline of nearly seven percentage

ma, Lhoungu said it was not a recent decision moreover it was the Central party directive to have its office in the state capital. He said since the party was unable to find a suitable place in Kohima, the office was initially setup in Dimapur and that the legislators were fully aware of it. L h o u n g u h oweve r clarified that proposal to shift the party was for the convenience of its legislators in order to attend office. It was also the directive of the Central leadership to make it possible for BJP legislators to visit the office at least once in a month or on rotation basis, he added. On the recent PAC meeting resolution, Lhoungu claimed that the PAC convened the meeting without regular members and that he was not invited even though he was a member. However, he said nonPAC members and suspend-

NEW DELHI, JUN 6 (AGENCIES): PM Narendra Modi has asked all secretaries to put collective effort to improve the condition of 100 most backward districts in the country. In his interaction with the top bureaucrats on Monday, the PM said this should be adopted on a mission mode and the various departments work as a team and not in silos to ensure the goal is achieved during “definite short time-frames”. Sources said Modi also reached out to the secretaries to “talk frankly”, which is being seen as an indication of how PM is open to listen to their honest views on different issues. Making a strong pitch to rise above the “administrative mechanisms of earlier centuries”, Modi said the secretaries have an

points of growth,” he said. He added that the most worrisome aspect of all this is the impact on job creation, adding that the jobs have been extremely hard to come by for the youth of the nation. “The construction industry, one of the largest employment generators in the country has suffered a contraction. This implies loss of millions of jobs,” he said. Following the release of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) Gross Value Added (GVA) figures for 2016-17 showing sliding of the economy by 1.3 percent, former finance minister P. Chidambaram on Friday trained the guns on the Centre for ridiculing the suggestions of Dr. Manmohan Singh. “The Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) has released the GDP GVA figures for 2016-17. Finally, the bluff of the Government is called. The economy was slowing down in the

middle of 2016 and we had cautioned the Government that unless it takes corrective steps, the economy will slide further. Instead of taking corrective steps, the Government decided to demonetise high-value currency. Suddenly, without any warning, Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 were declared legal tender and something like Rs. 14.5-15 lakh crore was pulled out of money supply,” Chidambaram told ANI. According to statistics, the GDP slowed sharply to 6.1 percent in the three months ending March 31. The GDP was 6.1 per in the January-March quarter, the immediate three months after the demonetisation was announced on November 8, 2016.The data released by Central Statistics Office revealed that the GVA slipped sharply to 6.6% in the last financial year ended March 31, from 7.9% growth in 2015-16.

Due process of law followed: CBI on action against NDTV

NEW DELHI, JUN 6 (PTI): The Central Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday sought to clarify its decision on carrying out raids against NDTV bosses saying the agency respects freedom of press and the action was taken as per the due process of law. The statement comes in the wake of various media organisations, including the much-powerful Editors Guild of India, expressing deep concern over the raids conducted by the CBI on the offices of NDTV and its promoters. “Entry of police and other agencies into the media offices is a serious matter,” the Editors Guild statement had said after the raids on Tuesday. In an unusually lengthy statement, the agency said it has not conducted any search on the registered office of NDTV, media stu-

dio, newsroom or premises connected with media operations. “CBI fully respects the freedom of press and is committed to the free functioning of news operations,” it said and clarified that the allegations under investigation are not regarding the default in loan repayment. “The investigation is being conducted as per the due process of law and under the jurisdiction of the court of law. The result of investigation will be filed before the competent court of law based on the evidence adduced during investigation,” it said. The agency said it has registered the case based on the complaint of a shareholder of ICICI bank and NDTV after carrying out due diligence. Referring to the statement of NDTV about never having defaulted on any loan, the CBI alleged that the

probe would revolve around why ICICI bank took the entire shareholding of the promoters in NDTV (nearly 61 per cent) as collateral and reduced the interest rates from 19% to 9.5%. Contesting NDTV’s questions raised over the jurisdiction of the CBI when ICICI was a private bank, the CBI referred to an order of the Supreme Court in the case of Ramesh Gelli versus CBI of 2016 where the apex court has held that the provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 are applicable to the officials of private banks. “Therefore, CBI has jurisdiction to take up investigation of the cases of private banks,” it said and assured the agency was committed to carry out the investigation expeditiously and in accordance with the due process of law.

Press bodies express concern over CBI raids

V

arious press bodies today expressed “deep concern” over the CBI raids at the residence of NDTV founder Prannoy Roy, saying they condemn any “attempt” to either “intimidate the media” or put curbs on its freedom. A statement of Editors Guild said NDTV, in various statements, has denied any wrong doing and termed the raids as “stepping up the concerted harassment” of the news channel and an attempt to “undermine democracy and free speech” and “silence the media.” “While the Editors Guild maintains that no individuals or institution is above the law, the Guild condemns any attempt to muzzle the media and calls upon the CBI to follow the due process of law and ensure there is no interference in the free functioning of news operations,” the statement said. “While we maintain that all individuals

and every institution has to abide by the law of the land, we condemn any attempt to either intimidate the media or put curbs on its freedom,” President of the Press Club, Gautam Lahiri said. In a strongly-worded statement, the umbrella press body also said, “We hope that all facts of the case, filed by the CBI, will be placed in public domain and the investigating agency will not harass the media organisation or place any kind of hindrance in the news operations of the channel.” The Indian Women’s Press Corps (IWPC) alleged that the law of the land should not “apply selectively” nor should it be “used as an instrument to harass anyone including the media”. All India Newspaper Editor’s Conference condemned the raid, alleging it was clearly a “case of attack on freedom of the press”.

Central schemes not reaching grassroot

Alliance partner (BJP) of NPF-led ruling DAN coalition in Nagaland, on Tuesday alleged that various pro-poor projects launched by the Prime Minister were not reaching the people at the grassroots level in the state. Speaking at the launching of party membership drive at its head office here, BJP state unit president, Visasolie Lhoungu, said that (Cont’d on p-7)

DIMAPUR, JUN 6 (NPN): Central Nagaland Tribes Council (CNTC) has lauded the newly elected team of the Ao Senden and the Sumi Hoho. CNTC media cell in a press note said, as the apex mandated platform of three tribal bodies, it would continue to work under the motto of unity, fraternity and solidarity and uphold the rights and voice of the three tribes (Ao, Sumi and Lotha) in particular and the people of Nagaland in general. Central Nagaland Tribes Council also reaffirmed to work against faulty policies and wrong ideals, saying it would continue “to work in the destination for common aspirations and cherished goals for the people of our Nagaland state for a better tomorrow.” K Y M C


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