Clean chit to Mizoram CM in graft case

Aizawl: Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla has been given a clean chit by the special judge for Prevention of Corruption court, in a graft case registered against him, Congress sources said on Sunday. ”The court on February 19 issued its final verdict which said Mr Thanhawla was clean in an alleged misappropriation of funds case for construction of Tuipanglui and Kau-Tlabung hydro-electric projects,” Congress spokesperson K Lal Rinawma said.

A criminal case, under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 was registered at the Aizawl police station against Lal Thanhawla on July two, 2002.

The case had been registered on the basis of a First Information Report (FIR) submitted by the Late Rev Zairema, a church leader, who alleged that Mr Thanhawla misused his office and power by misappropriating a large amount of public money during his two-term as the Chief Minister from 1989-1998. (UNI)

Rebel leader held

Imphal: Banned militant oufit KCP’s Commander-in-Chief Rajen Singh was arrested from his house in Aizawl in Mizoram. Official sources on Sunday said acting on a tip-off, troops of 57 Mountain Division on Saturday launched an operation in collaboration with police forces from Mizoram and Manipur, and nabbed the militant from his residence. (UNI)

Boy kills sister in freak incident

Aizawl: Had his father not left the gun within the reach of children, this five-year-old girl would have been still alive.

Everyone was shocked when a 15-year-old boy of Zemabawk locality in Aizawl unintentionally shot dead his five-year-old sister with his father’s .22 service pistol at their residence on Saturday.

According to sources, the kids’ father C Lalthlamuana, a policeman, was out-of-station and their mother too was away in the market.

The boy, not knowing that the gun had live cartridges, shot his youngest sister C Ramdinmawii on her chest.

Terrified by what he had done, the boy carried his bleeding sister out of the house and handed her over to a neighbour who was passing by and he himself immediately fainted. The deceased was the youngest sibling in the family. (UNI)

Assam Govt move to abolish ‘outside quota’ for PG seats

Guwahati: To tackle the acute shortage of specialised medical professionals and augment services in State’s hospitals and medical colleges, Assam Government has decided to do away with outsiders’ quota in post-graduate courses in the State’s medical colleges subject to approval of Supreme Court. As per the Supreme Court directive, medical colleges in Assam are required to reserve 50 per cent of seats in post-graduate courses for students from outside Assam who appear in the All India Post Graduate Medical Entrance Test. However, Assam Government would soon file a petition in Supreme Court seeking exemption from the mandatory reservation of seats for outside students in post-graduate medical courses so that the institutions in the State can produce enough specialised doctors to serve in public hospitals in the State, Health Minister Dr Himanta Bishwa Sharma informed.

He said in the next few years Assam, would require a large number of specialised medical professionals given that the Government was setting up three more medical colleges in the State.

Meningitis claims two more in Tripura

Agartala: Two persons died from suspected outbreak of meningitis in a tribal hamlet of South Tripura district on Saturday. With this, the death toll from the disease has risen to 56 in the State.

Sources said Urmilla Reang (19) of Kalajari in South District, who had been suffering from fever, was admitted to Amarpur hospital on February 16. She died later of suspected meningitis.

Rananta Reang of the same village also died of fever with meningitis symptom on Saturday night, according to the villagers.

When contacted, SDMO (Amarpur) Dr Achinta Nath said, “a medical team has left for Kalajari on Sunday to investigate the matter. It is not yet confirmed if the two actually died due to meningitis as of now,” he said.

According to hospital sources, on an average about 40 to 45 patients visit Amarpur hospital daily and of them only 50 per cent are fever patients.

Dr Nath said the overall situation is under control while stating that there are sporadic cases of malaria across the subdivision. “The entire subdivision is malaria prone. There is nothing alarming,” he said.

It may be mentioned that the outbreak of meningitis was first reported from Longtarai Valley subdivision of Dhalai district. Alarmed by the outbreak, the State government decided to offer preventive medicines to 1.40 lakh people living in the subdivision on February 27.

A team of National Institute of Communicable Disease (NICD) has undertaken investigation into the matter.

Bamboo floor tiles, handicraft in offing

Agartala: Bamboo, which grows in abundance in Tripura, is now ready for value addition and commercial utilisation with technology provided by China’s Nanjing Forestry University.

The Bamboo Engineering Research Centre (BERC) at the Nanjing university has concluded after extensive research that the bamboo varieties found in the State could be used in making floor tiles, building materials and handicraft.

The State’s Forest Minister Jitendra Chowdhury said the Government had signed a memorandum of understanding with the BERC through the Tripura Forest Development and Plantation Corporation (TFDPC) in 2007 for transfer of technology.

The TFDPC had last year sent a consignment of two varieties of bamboo available only in Tripura — Muli and Mirtinga — to the university for research.

The minister said that the BERC had recently sent some samples of finished building materials with recommendations that the bamboo types available in Tripura had huge opportunity of export.

Chowdhury, who had led an Indian delegation in 2007 to seek technical assistance from the BERC, said efforts were being made to use the grass in making organic fertiliser and bamboo fibres for manufacturing pulp.

The TFDPC has already decided to establish a bamboo-based factory at Nagicherra industrial estate here with the Japan Bank of International Cooperation providing financial assistance.

“The initiative has been taken to exploit the potential of bamboos in the state,” Deputy Manager of TFDPC Madhumita Som said, adding the JBIC would provide a financial assistance of Rs 1 crore to promote non-timber forest products.

She said the factory would produce handicraft items and material for decorating houses.

The TFDPC has initiated a training programme for artisans to run the proposed factory.

There is a growing demand for bamboo-made products as people have shown interest in various bamboo-made products in different commercial exhibitions in the country, she said.

Investors from Bangladesh are also showing interest with a delegation of industrialists, led by Abdul Matlub Ahmed, president of Indo-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industries, visiting Tripura last week. It stayed for four days to explore possibilities of investment in the state.

Matlub, an industrialist himself, announced that he would relocate his Rs 200 crore pulp and paper mill from Sylhat to Tripura as bamboo is available here in plenty. (PTI)

Source: THE SHILLONG TIMES

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