Tag: Northeast

  • Last 10 years a ‘Golden Era’ for Northeast: Amit Shah

    Union home minister Amit Shah on Friday said that if the last 10 years in northeast are compared with 75 years after the country’s independence, then this decade will definitely be considered as the golden period of the Northeast.

    He was addressing the 71st plenary session of the North Eastern Council in Shillong. While all the chief ministers and governors of eight northeastern states attended the meeting, Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh skipped it owing to law and situation in his state.

    Shah said that the last 10 years under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi have been the most significant for the development of the northeast in 75 years since independence. Shah said that the northeast, which was struggling with various ethnic, linguistic, border and extremist group-related problems, has also had the beginning of a fresh and durable era of peace in these 10 years.Shah urged all the states to control the Gross Fiscal Deficit and said that Manipur, Assam, Nagaland and Tripura have made commendable efforts in this direction. The Union home minister said that from 2004 to 2014, a total of 11,121 violent incidents took place in the northeast. It declined by 73% to 3,114 from 2014 to 2023. Deaths among security forces dropped by 71% from 458 to 132, while civilian deaths declined by 86%.

  • PM hints at FIFA-like event in India, unveils slew of projects in NE

    By Express News Service

    GUWAHATI:  Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday launched a slew of development projects in poll-bound Tripura and Meghalaya, and said that the northeast region has benefited the most from various development initiatives of the Centre. 

    Addressing a public rally in Agartala, he said the region, which was earlier known for conflicts, is now synonymous with development, connectivity and cleanliness. Highlighting the BJP government’s focus on development, he said his government is spending as much as Rs 7 lakh crore on infrastructure this year. In contrast, the amount was less than Rs 2 lakh crore eight years ago, he added.

    In Meghalaya, Modi chose to speak the language of football. Speaking at a function in Shillong, he said India will host a mega global sports event like the FIFA World Cup in the near future where Indians will cheer for the tricolour. Dropping hints that such an event will be held in the region, he said the World Cup might be underway in Qatar but the enthusiasm and excitement were no less in the Northeast.

    “Today I can say from Shillong that even if we have our eyes on the foreign teams playing the game in Qatar, I have faith in the power of our youth. The day is not far off when we will celebrate the same kind of extravaganza and cheer for the tricolour,” Modi said amid thunderous applause.  He was speaking after attending the golden jubilee celebration of the North Eastern Council.

    “In football, if someone plays against the spirit of the game, then the player is shown red card and sent off. In a similar way, over the last five years in the Northeast, we have shown red card to any obstacles against development,” Modi said, adding, “We tried to remove corruption, division, violence, vote-bank politics to pave the way for development.”

    Tripura gets projects worth Rs 4,300 croreThe PM inaugurated a slew of development projects worth Rs 4,300 cr in Tripura. He said the “double-engine government” is determined to implement development projects in the state

    GUWAHATI:  Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday launched a slew of development projects in poll-bound Tripura and Meghalaya, and said that the northeast region has benefited the most from various development initiatives of the Centre. 

    Addressing a public rally in Agartala, he said the region, which was earlier known for conflicts, is now synonymous with development, connectivity and cleanliness. Highlighting the BJP government’s focus on development, he said his government is spending as much as Rs 7 lakh crore on infrastructure this year. In contrast, the amount was less than Rs 2 lakh crore eight years ago, he added.

    In Meghalaya, Modi chose to speak the language of football. Speaking at a function in Shillong, he said India will host a mega global sports event like the FIFA World Cup in the near future where Indians will cheer for the tricolour. Dropping hints that such an event will be held in the region, he said the World Cup might be underway in Qatar but the enthusiasm and excitement were no less in the Northeast.

    “Today I can say from Shillong that even if we have our eyes on the foreign teams playing the game in Qatar, I have faith in the power of our youth. The day is not far off when we will celebrate the same kind of extravaganza and cheer for the tricolour,” Modi said amid thunderous applause.  He was speaking after attending the golden jubilee celebration of the North Eastern Council.

    “In football, if someone plays against the spirit of the game, then the player is shown red card and sent off. In a similar way, over the last five years in the Northeast, we have shown red card to any obstacles against development,” Modi said, adding, “We tried to remove corruption, division, violence, vote-bank politics to pave the way for development.”

    Tripura gets projects worth Rs 4,300 crore
    The PM inaugurated a slew of development projects worth Rs 4,300 cr in Tripura. He said the “double-engine government” is determined to implement development projects in the state

  • Want to bring Northeast on par with developed states: Union Home Minister Amit Shah

    Express News Service

    GUWAHATI: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday said a peaceful Northeast is one of Centre’s three goals for the region, along with safeguarding local cultures, and development.

    “We not only want to protect local cultures, languages and traditions but also enrich them. We want to make the region insurgency, and dispute-free and give a platform to the youth to compete with the world,” Shah said, after unveiling a statue of Swami Vivekananda at the Ramakrishna Mission Ashram at Narottam Nagar in Arunachal Pradesh.

    “We want to ensure that the states here are on a par with the developed states. Over 60 per cent of areas on the Assam-Meghalaya boundary had been freed from disputes,” Shah said.

    The two states had signed an agreement to resolve their disputes in six of the 12 areas. He added that the Assam-Arunachal problem could be resolved by 2023. Stressing how PM Narendra Modi has brought about change, Shah said, “Over 9,000 youth, who were wielding the gun, joined the mainstream.”

    He highlighted how issues like bandhs in Manipur, the Bru unrest in Mizoram-Tripura, and problems in Assam’s Bodo areas were resolved. “Modiji has reduced the gap between the Northeast and the rest of the country,” Shah said.

  • Assam-Meghalaya resolve border dispute in 6 locations; Shah terms it ‘historic day’ for Northeast

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Assam and Meghalaya on Tuesday signed an agreement to resolve their five-decade-old border dispute in six of the 12 locations, with Union Home Minister Amit Shah calling it a “historic day” for the Northeast.

    The agreement was signed in the presence of Shah and Chief Ministers of Assam and Meghalaya Himanta Biswa Sarma and Conrad Sangma respectively.

    The pact will resolve the protracted dispute in six of the 12 places along the 884.9 km border between the two states. “It is a historic day for the Northeast,” Shah said at the function held at the Ministry of Home Affairs here.

    The home minister said with the signing of the agreement, 70 per cent of the border dispute between the two states has been resolved.

    There are 36 villages in the six places, covering an area of 36.79 sq km, with regard to which the agreement has been reached. The two states had formed three committees each in August last year to go into the vexed boundary question.

    The constitution of the panels had followed two rounds of talks between Sarma and Sangma where the neighbouring states resolved to settle the dispute in a phased manner.

    According to the joint final set of recommendations made by the committees, out of 36.79 sq km disputed area taken up for settlement in the first phase, Assam will get full control of 18.51 sq km and Meghalaya 18.28 sq km.

    Out of the 12 points of dispute between Assam and Meghalaya, the six areas with relatively less critical differences were taken up in the first phase.

    The boundary dispute between Assam and Meghalaya has lingered for 50 years. However, the effort to resolve it gained pace in recent times.

    Meghalaya was carved out of Assam as a separate state in 1972 but the new state had challenged the Assam Reorganisation Act, 1971, leading to dispute in 12 locations in the border areas.

  • Working conditions of teachers in Northeast poor: UNESCO report 

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The working conditions of teachers in the Northeast and “aspirational districts” are poor and there is a marked rural-urban disparity in terms of basic amenities as well as information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure, according to a UNESCO report.

    The report, titled ‘2021 State of the Education Report for India: No Teacher, No Class’, also states that while teacher availability has improved, pupil-teacher ratios are still adverse in secondary schools.

    The teaching workforce has a deficit of over 1 million teachers at current student strength and the need is likely to grow, given the shortages of teachers in certain education levels and subjects such as early childhood education, special education, physical education, music, arts, and curricular streams of vocational education, the report says.

    “In fifteen years, about 30 per cent of the current workforce will need to be replaced,” it said.

    “There is a pronounced need to improve both availability and deployment of qualified teachers in the north-eastern states of India. In terms of basic amenities, the working conditions of teachers in the northeast and the aspirational districts are poor.

    Provision of school libraries is low, information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure is very low, and there is marked rural-urban disparity.

    “While teacher availability has improved, pupil-teacher ratios are adverse in secondary schools. Moreover, there is no information on availability of special education, music, arts and physical education teachers. The availability and deployment of subject teachers too, is not well documented and monitored. Almost all single-teacher schools are in rural areas,” the report said.

    The report, released by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), has noted that the teaching profession has “average status” in India, but it is a career of choice for women and youth from rural areas in particular.

    “Private school teachers and early childhood education teachers are highly vulnerable groups, with many working without contracts at low salaries, with no health or maternity leave benefits,” it said.

    Calling for more “professional autonomy” for teachers, the report said, “Teacher workload is high — contrary to public perception — although invisible, and a source of stress.

    Teachers value being given professional autonomy, and disregard of this is demotivating.”

    “Teachers’ voices in the system in matters of policy and governance can be enhanced through professional teacher networks, and unions. Most accountability systems tend to emphasize monitoring. Professional standards need to be made a part of a larger system and used in the context of professional development rather than accountability,” it added.

    The report prepared using data from the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) has also found that the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the vulnerability and insecurity of teachers.

    “The profession is overall gender balanced, with women accounting for about 50 per cent of the teaching workforce, but there are significant inter-state and urban-rural variations,” it said.

    “Special attention needs to be paid to rural areas, districts with high scheduled caste and tribe populations, and all across India’s north-east, where the ratio of teachers to students needs to improve and be rationalized.

    Working conditions in these ‘difficult to staff’ regions also need to be improved.

    More state support for teacher education programmes is desirable in these regions,” the report recommended.

  • COVID vaccine delivery through drones starts in Northeast, says Health Minister

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Monday launched an initiative to facilitate COVID-19 vaccine delivery to tough and hard-to-reach terrains of the Northeast through drones.

    The ICMR’s Drone Response and Outreach in North East (i-Drone), a delivery model to make sure that life-saving COVID vaccines reach everyone, is in line with the government’s commitment to ‘Antyodaya’ in health – making healthcare accessible to the last citizen of the country, officials said.

    “This is for the first time that a “Make in India’ drone has been used in South Asia to transport COVID-19 vaccine over an aerial distance of 15 km in 12-15 mins from the Bishnupur district hospital to Loktak lake, Karang island in Manipur for administration at the PHC.

    “The actual road distance between these locations is 26 km. Today, 10 beneficiaries will receive the first dose and eight will receive the second dose at the PHC,” Mandaviya said.

    Thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Union Health Minister said, “Under his leadership, the nation is progressing at a great pace.

    “Today is a historic day, which showed us how technology is making life easier and bringing social change.”

    India is home to geographical diversities and drones can be used to deliver essentials to the last mile, he said.

    “We can use drones in delivering important life-saving medicines, collecting blood samples. This technology can also be used in critical situations. This technology may prove a game-changer in addressing the challenges in health care delivery, particularly health supplies in difficult areas,” Mandaviya said.

    Launching the initiative which would facilitate vaccine delivery to hard-to-reach terrains of India, the Union Health Minister said, “Our immunisation programme for COVID-19 has already exceeded all expectations.

    “I strongly believe that this initiative will further help us achieve the highest possible immunisation coverage for COVID-19. Incorporating such drone technologies into the national programmes would help deliver other vaccines and medical supplies as quickly as possible.”

    Despite the effective and safe vaccine administration in the states and Union Territories, the vaccine delivery in tough and hard-to-reach terrains of India is still challenging.

    The i-Drone has been designed to overcome these challenges by deploying Unmanned Aerial vehicles (UAV) / drones to remote areas, the health ministry said.

    Currently, the drone-based delivery project has been granted permission for implementation in Manipur and Nagaland, as well as the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

    The ICMR conducted an initial study in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur to test the capacity of drones to carry and transfer vaccines safely.

    The study was conducted in Manipur, Nagaland and Andaman and Nicobar.

    These studies provided promising results on the basis of which the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and other regulatory authorities have granted permission to fly drones beyond the Visual Line Of Sight.

    Mandaviya expressed confidence in the initiative and noted that it can be helpful in delivering not only vaccines but also other medical supplies.

    This will help in overcoming the gaps in current vaccine delivery mechanisms, he said He thanked the Ministry of Civil Aviation, DGCA and the Airport Authority of India for their support towards this endeavour and congratulated ICMR, health workers and all associated with this landmark initiative.

  • 26 suspected Myanmar nationals held in Guwahati, possessed fake ID proofs

    By Express News Service

    GUWAHATI: Twenty-six suspected Myanmar nationals, including women, were arrested by the police in Guwahati on Sunday.

    The police said they arrived from Mizoram capital Aizawl in two SUVs and checked into a city hotel by producing fake voter and Aadhaar cards and doctored educational certificates.  They told the police they were headed to Delhi to attend a religious programme.

    There has been a steady influx of people from Myanmar’s Chin State into Mizoram ever since the coup by the military of the neighbouring country. Presently, over 10,000 Myanmar nationals are taking refuge in Mizoram.

    The refugees are lodged in community halls, public halls, school buildings etc. The Mizoram government recently started enrolling the children of the refugees into schools.

    People from Myanmar’s Chin community and the Mizos in India belong to Zo ethnic group and they share the same ancestry.

  • Over 26 per cent people of Northeast region suffer from Non-Communicable Diseases: Report

    The study conducted by Assocham found that 87 per cent of people from the region incur out-of-pocket expenditure for NCD treatment in comparison to the national average of 81 per cent.

  • As Covid ebbs, Northeast starts reopening

    By Express News Service

    GUWAHATI: The states in the Northeast have started reopening after enforcing COVID-19 curbs for months together.

    The Assam government decided to resume classes for the students of class XI to postgraduate level from September 1. The guidelines on how the institutes will function will be issued by August 31.

    The neighbouring Meghalaya decided to reopen schools and colleges from the next month.

    Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said the students of classes VI to VIII will visit their school to submit assignments and interact with teachers to clear doubts etc while classes IX to XII will be open for regular offline classes. In rural areas, classes VI to XII will be open for the regular classes.

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    The state will also reopen its doors for tourists from September 1. The tourists will have to come after taking both vaccine doses.

    There is no bar on the entry of those who have taken one dose and the unvaccinated people but they will be required to produce a negative report of RT-PCR, TRUNAT or CBNAAT test done within 72 hours of the visit. The tourists will be also required to furnish the details of their visit and stay.

    Tripura resumed the physical classes for students from VI to XII from August 25 following the decline in COVID-19 positivity rate.

    Similarly, the Mizoram government has also allowed the reopening of over 300 schools in COVID-free areas. In Nagaland, the offline classes have resumed for XI and XII students.

    Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh have not yet taken any decision on the reopening of schools and colleges.

  • CYMA demands probe into involvement of outside forces in Mizoram-Assam border skirmishes

    By PTI

    AIZWAL: The central committee of Young Mizo Association or Central YMA (CYMA), the largest and most influential organisation in Mizoram, has demanded a probe into the alleged involvement of outside forces in the recent border skirmishes between Mizoram and Assam, a CYMA leader said.

    CYMA president Vanlalruata said that the meeting of the organisation on Tuesday passed a resolution demanding a probe under the supervision of the Central government.

    The demand came a day after a delegation of BJP MPs from the Northeast led by Union minister Kiren Rijiju met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and submitted a memorandum in which they alleged that the border tension between Assam and Mizoram was fuelled by forces from outside.

    The CYMA denied the allegation and said that it was a “complete lie”, Vanlalruata said.

    No MP from Mizoram was present in the delegation, the CYMA said.

    The delegation also submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister seeking his intervention to resolve the boundary disputes among Northeastern states.

    Earlier, the Assam government has linked the recent violent clash between police forces of two states to the handiwork of “non-state actors”, who have been angered by the state government’s massive crackdown on drug trafficking and restriction of transportation of cattle under the proposed Assam Cattle Protection legislation.

    However, Mizoram Home minister Lalchamliana had strongly refuted the allegation citing “no responsible government could be hand-in-glove or influenced by outsiders.”