October 17, 2020

Page 1

Nagaland Post www.nagalandpost.com

Vol XXX No. 313

DIMAPUR, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2020 Pages 12 ` 5.00

New clashes in Nagorno-Karabakh

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Muivah hardens stand on solution

will never join ‘Nagas India nor accept the

Indian Constitution

NEW DELHI, OCT 16 (AGENCIES): In an exclusive interview with The Wire, that is likely to upset and even annoy the Centre and which starkly reveals the sharp differences that are still separating the NSCN (I-M) from the Indian government, NSCN (I-M) general secretary, Th. Muivah has repeatedly and forcefully said that the Nagas will never be part of the Indian Union nor will they accept India’s constitution. Muivah added that there could be no compromise on the NSCN (I-M)’s insistence on a Naga flag and Naga constitution. “We have stood our ground on these two nonnegotiable issues and we shall continue to stand till the last man standing,” he said. Muivah added that Naga organisations like the Naga National Political Groups or several civil society organisations, who are not insisting on a separate

Th. Muivah during the interview with Karan Thapar. (The Wire)

flag and constitution, are “traitors”. In a 55-minute interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire, Muivah, who is 86 and hard of hearing, also sharply criticised R.N. Ravi, the interlocutor and Nagaland Governor. He said Ravi “betrayed” the NSCN (I-M), “he has thrown us away” and that was acting at the behest of the Union home ministry. Clearly indicating that the NSCN (I-M)’s patience is running out Muivah told The Wire that if the government does not agree to NSCN (I-M)’s terms or backs away from earlier understandings they would be “compelled to leave the talks”. However, despite repeated questioning, he

refused to say how much more time he was prepared to give the talks. He also repeatedly refused to answer the question whether the NSCN (I-M) would take to arms if it walked out of the talks thus returning the situation in Nagaland to what prevailed before the 1997 ceasefire. At one point when he was asked whether the insurgency would re-start if the talks collapse, his answer was “you need to ask that to the Indian government”. He said that historically the Nagas have never been under Indian rule. He repeatedly said this has been accepted by the Indian government. Therefore, he argued, if the Nagas have a unique identity and history the solution must also be unique.

Dimapur has highest TB cases in the state

Pangnyu launching the handbook ‘TB Harega, Desh Jeetega’. (NP)

Correspondent

KOHIMA, OCT 16 (NPN): Dimapur district with 1036 Tuberculosis (TB) patients has the highest TB cases in the state followed by Kohima (414), Mon (365) and Tuensang (191), Zunheboto (85), Wokha (81), Peren (74), Kiphire (53) and Longleng (35), as per the official record from January–September, 2020. As the country aims to end TB by 2025, five years ahead of the global target, Nagaland Health and Family Welfare (H&FW) minister S Pangnyu Phom released “TB Harega, Desh Jeetega”, a handbook for

elected representatives on Tuberculosis at his office chamber here Friday. Speaking at the handbook release programme, the minister said that the National Strategic Plan (NSP 2017-2025) has outlined ambitious strategies and several innovative steps in implementing the National TB Elimination Programme (NTEP). Pointing out that early diagnosis was appropriate treatment and important for ending TB, the minister said that in order to achieve that the NTEP has expanded NTEP facilities with state of art molecular diagnosis,

availability of free treatment for both drugs sensitive and drug resistant TB cases, nutritional assistance to patients through NIKSHAY Poshan Yojana (NPY) and financial schemes to reduce catastrophic cost of patients and their families. The minister said Nagaland state was committed to reduce TB burden in terms of incidences, prevalence, morbidity and mortality and ensure that Nagaland free from TB in line with NSP. He pointed out that Nagaland’s performance was assessed based on State TB score Index annually, adding that in 2019 the state was ranked in the second list of best performance state amongst the smaller category. Phom also said that Nagaland was acknowledged with best performance recognition during the release of annual health India TB report launched by Union Minister for Health And Family Welfare on June 24, (Cont’d on p-8) 2020.

Asked specifically whether the government’s refusal to agree to a separate Naga flag and constitution would be a breaking point he said “there can be no solution without a flag and constitution”. He dismissed the argument that after the government had revoked Article 370 and done away with Kashmir’s flag and constitution it cannot now accept this in the case of Nagaland. He said the unique Naga history and identity not only means that the solution has to be unique but also that the Jammu and Kashmir precedent cannot apply. When it was pointed out to Muivah that groups like Naga National Political Groups and civil society organisations are not insisting on a flag and constitution he dismissed them as “traitors”, The Wire stated. On October 15, various stakeholders and civil society groups unanimously passed a resolution to support the ongoing talks in ‘one voice’. The resolution, however, was quiet on the NSCN (I-M)’s demand for a separate flag.

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ANCSU sends 10 lakh emails to govt officials

DIMAPUR, OCT 16 (NPN): All Nagaland College Students’ Union (ANCSU) has claimed of sending 10 lakh mails to email accounts of top state government officials on the third day of its ongoing “digital protest” against the failure of the government to set up a panel to probe fund utilisation at Khelhoshe Polytechnic Atoizu, Zunheboto. ANCSU general secretary Imnameren N Jamir and I&PR secretary Aochuba P Jamir said, besides sending emails, multiple phone calls were made to the chief minister and chief secretary’s office and other government offices. They said while making calls, the students received responses like “file is under process”, “kindly enquire from the directorate of technical education”, etc, while some numbers were unreachable. ANCSU accused the government of deliberately ignoring the voice of student community and warned of further intensifying its ongoing stir. The union also asked its units to be fully prepared for any call to express their resentment against the gov(Cont’d on p-8) ernment.

Closure of NH29 stretch on Oct 18 & 19 DIMAPUR, OCT 16 (NPN): In view of the restoration works, the deputy commissioner (DC) Dimapur has ordered total restriction of all movement from Chathe River Bridge (Patkai Bridge) to Kukidolong from 5 a.m. of October 18 till 5 a.m. of October 19. In a circular, DC Dimapur, Rajesh Soundararajan, stated that the restriction was being necessitated as a precautionary measure to prevent any injury, loss of life and damage to property. General public could take the alternative route from Dimapur-Kohima Kohima-Dimapur (for light vehicles only) via 7th MileNew DC Office-ShokhuviRazaphe-Mhaikam-PimlaMhainamtsi-Jhornapani/ Medziphema and vice versa.

SC appoints panel to prevent stubble burning

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Nagaland has around 11,000 excess govt. teachers: Sukhalu

KT Sukhalu with HSLC & HSSLC toppers and NSF office bearers at RCEMPA. (NP)

Correspondent

KOHIMA, OCT 16 (NPN): Advisor School Education, KT Sukhalu, Friday said that there was an excess of around 11,000 government teachers in the state against the existing 20,000 teachers inclusive of SSA and RMSA teachers. Speaking as special guest at the “HSLC & HSSLC Naga Toppers’ felicitation programme 2020” for students from Nagaland and Manipur, organized by Naga Students’ Federation (NSF) at RCEMPA Hall Jotsoma here, Sukhalu pointed that since the national average of student-teacher ratio was 32:1, the actual requirement of teachers was 9000. He also asserted that there was a general perception among families in

the state that sending their children to private schools was better. Advisor said that with the increase in enrolment in private school over the years, the enrolment in government schools has dropped to 1,69,548. In spite of government teachers being well qualified and trained, Sukhalu said that government teachers did not seem to inspire parents and children including their own children to study in government schools. “We need to seriously ponder over this matter, either to close down schools that do not have any enrolment (both in urban and rural areas) or merge schools that have low enrolment; and if student enrolment continues to drop, how do we reduce the number of government

teachers?” Sukhalu said. In this regard, the advisor urged NSF and ENSF to focus more on the education and welfare of the students and to ensure that teachers were doing their job and “not indulging in other activities keeping their proxies”. Referring to the ongoing NSF and ENSF protest over the issue of SSA and RMSA teachers, the advisor thanked the two federations for showing their respect to former Minister late CM Chang by suspending their agitation till October 18. At the same time, Sukhalu appealed to all the stakeholders especially both the federations and affiliate members to reconsider their proposed agitation that was proposed to begin from October 19. (Cont’d on p-8)

Nagaland COVID tally 7604 NNC CEC cautions groups COVID-19 STATUS AS ON october 16, 2020 against misleading Nagas District

Dimapur Kiphire Kohima Longleng Mokokchung Mon Peren Phek Tuensang Wokha Zunheboto Total

ACTIVE CASES Symptomatic AsympCritical-ICU tomMod- Se- With On atic Mild erate vere Oxy- Ventigen lator 912 33 6 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 343 8 4 0 2 1 4 0 0 0 0 0 56 0 0 0 0 0 37 0 0 0 0 0 19 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 34 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 1410 41 10 0 3 2

Death ReMi- Total under cov- Death grat- CasInvestiered ed es gation

3036 17* 12 0 2026 2 5 0 44 1 373 2 274 0 35 0 95 0 26 0 120 0 6046 22

5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5

39 0 8 7 0 8 0 0 0 0 3 65

4050 12 2394 16 101 420 293 36 129 26 127 7604

*5 deaths not due to Covid-19 *5 deaths in under investigation

DIMAPUR, OCT 16 (NPN): Nagaland on Friday reported 112 new COVID-19 positive cases from across the state-- 64 in Dimapur, 21 in Kohima, 20 in Mokokchung, 3 in Mon, 2 in Tuensang and 1 each in Longleng and Peren, taking the tally to 7604 cases. Further, out of 7604 cases, the distribution across various categories of people include 3427 cases from the armed forces/police, 1593 returnees, 2204 traced

contacts and 380 frontline workers.

India’s tally climbs to 73,70,468 cases PTI: India’s COVID-19 caseload rose to 73,70,468 with 63,371 new infections being reported in a day, while the death toll climbed to 1,12,161 with the virus claiming 895 lives in a span of 24 hours, according to the Health Ministry data updated on Friday.

DIMAPUR, OCT 16 (NPN): NNC’s central executive council (CEC) has clarified that it has nothing to do with either the Framework Agreement of 2015 or the Agreed Position of 2017 signed by NSCN (I-M) and Working Committee of Naga National Political Groups (NNPGs) respectively with Government of India (GoI) and cautioned both the groups against misleading the Nagas and jeopardising the Naga position, besides asking them to desist from “nonsense engagements” with GoI henceforth. In a statement, NNC also declared that it would steadfastly continue to uphold and defend Naga national rights as declared and established under its initiatives based on unquestionable historical foundations of the Nagas. NNC listed formal declaration of Naga indepen-

dence on August 14, 1947, Naga plebiscite of May 16, 1951 resulting in an overwhelming affirmation to stay independent, formation of Federal Republic of Nagaland on March 22, 1956 by amalgamation of Naga areas and to safeguard territorial integrity of Nagaland as defined in Art.1 of the Yehzabo of Nagaland as the historical foundations. Art. 1 states: “The territory of Nagaland shall comprise all territories of Nagas and such other territories as the Tatar Hoho may by law admit on such terms and conditions as it may deem fit.” NNC clarified that it the statement was issued to address the commotion created by unceasing parleys all these years between the “ever-manipulative Government of India and groups of self-seeking Nagas” in the name of peace talks, solution, settlement, etc.

Terror funding: ED attaches `4.23 cr assets of Niki’s wife 8 candidates in the WC flays grenade attack on AR camp NEW DELHI, OCT 16 (PTI): Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday said it has attached assets worth over Rs 4 crore of the wife of a leader of NSCN(K), in a money laundering case linked to terror financing.

This is it!

“Surely, I’m not going to let coronavirus deprive me of branded items at beggarly prices.” K Y M C

The attached assets, amounting to Rs 4.23 crore, are in the form of residential houses, a vehicle and balances in bank accounts and belong to Shelly N Sumi, who is the wife of NSCN (K) leader ‘lt. gen.’ Niki Sumi, the central probe agency said in a statement. Shelly and her associates were intercepted by the troops of paramilitary force Assam Rifles on April 7, 2017 near the Karong village, Manipur while they were travelling in a bus from Dimapur to Imphal. It was alleged by the agencies that Shelly was travelling to Myanmar to hand over about Rs 18.47 lakh cash to her husband. The ED case is based on an NIA FIR against Shelly Sumi. The NIA probe had found that at the time of her arrest Shelly planned to travel to GHQ

Taga, (HQ of NSCN-K) Myanmar, to handover an amount of Rs. 18.47 lakh to her husband Niki Sumi. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) took over the probe of the case after the interception and the ED later filed a criminal case of money laundering and terror financing against Shelly N Sumi and others. The NIA, in searches carried out at Shelly N Sumi’s locations, recovered another over Rs 27.90 lakh cash. The ED said its probe found that the “NSCN(K), a proscribed terrorist organisation, indulged in collecting funds from government employees, businessmen by extortion and illegal means and Sumi and her associates were involved in criminal conspiracy to transfer funds to NSCN (K) via the Indo-Myanmar border.” “Shelly Sumi is a gov-

ernment employee working as sectional assistant in the public works department of Nagaland and gets monthly salary of about Rs 28,000 which is the only legal income of the family of seven (Sumi and her six children),” it said. “The details of the properties owned by Sumi, her family members and associates were unearthed and it was found they amassed huge assets in the form of a palatial house at Dimapur in Nagaland that is valued at Rs 3.6 crore, a Scorpio vehicle, a house at Zunheboto and bank balances in the name of family members,” it said. The properties created in the name of Shelly N Sumi and her children were “acquired without any reasonable source of income and from illegally extorted money by terror activities”, the agency said.

fray for by-elections

KOHIMA, OCT 16 (NPN): Altogether eight candidates from different political parties and Independents filed nomination papers on the last day for by-polls to two Assembly constituencies – 14 Southern Angami-I and 60 PungroKiphire. According to chief electoral officer Abhijit Sinha, five candidates filed their nominations for 60 Pungro-Kiphire. The candidates include Khaseo Anar (Congress), Lirimong Sangtam (BJP), K Shellumthong (Independent), T Yangseo Sangtam (Independent) and Kiusumew Yimchunger (Independent). On the other hand, three candidates filed their nominations on Friday for 14 Southern Angami-1 constituency and the candidates are Medo Yhokha (NDPP), Kikovi Kirha (NPF) and Seyievilie Peter Zashumo (Independent). While October 17 has been fixed as the date of scrutiny of nominations, the last date for withdrawal of candidatures is October 19. Polling will be held on November 3 and counting of votes will take place on November 10. The 14 Southern Angami-I seat fell vacant following the demise of sitting NDPP legislator and speaker Vikho-o Yoshu and 60-Pungro Kiphire fell vacant after the demise of its sitting NPF legislator T. Torechu. (Correspondent)

DIMAPUR, OCT 16 (NPN): Working Committee (WC) of NNPGs expressed shock at the throwing of a grenade at Assam Rifles transit camp near Purana Bazaar on October 10. In a statement, WC called on all Nagas to commit themselves to fulfil the common aspiration, warning that violence was a direct challenge to “our people” that deserved mass condemnation. Noting that Nagas were keenly waiting for an honourable and acceptable political solution to the long-drawn “Indo-Naga” political issue, WC claimed that, with active support and co-operation from Naga tribes and civil society groups, it had exhibited utmost commitment and transparency in relaying the status of the political dialogue, the negotiated points and political structures post solution in Nagaland as well as in “our ancestral lands” presently under Manipur, Arunachal and Assam. Calling for peace, WC emphasised that it was the duty of all tribes and civil society groups

to retake towns, villages, colonies, etc, from anti-peace elements and criminals. It said creating fear psychosis by national workers should not be tolerated anymore. WC was categorical in stating “none should attempt to keep the Naga society at ransom. Those who do not understand the value of peace should not claim Naga future.” Pointing out that honourable, acceptable and peaceful political solution would not fly in from the USA, UK, Netherlands, Japan or Thailand, WC said while it acknowledged Naga well-wishers from across the globe, the reality is that the issue is between Government of India (GoI) and the Nagas. Hence, WC said it was negotiating with GoI and confided with Naga tribes on all negotiated points without ambiguity. WC said “beginning from Agreed Position signed on Nov. 17, 2017 and all along the negotiations, the political and historical identity of the Nagas had been entrenched. We reiterate this truth before God and the Naga people.” K Y M C


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