By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The Samajwadi Party is looking to field as many a s 16 candidates for the February 23 Assembly election in the State.
Former Minister Manirul Isalm Sarkar , who is a party functionary said over phone that the party will also field Binod Joshi, son of former Congress legislator D. N Joshi among others to contest in the upcoming polls.
Sarkar will contest from Phulbari
By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Around 14,070 patients from the remote areas of the State underwent examination in the 175 cancer check up camps held from January to December 2012 conducted by the Roko Cancer Charitable Trust.
Since its inception in February 2010 under the guidance of the Area Director, Geeta Sarin, the entire team of the trust has been spreading awareness about the dreaded disease by means of counseling, talks by doctors, distribution of pamphlets and screening documentaries.
“Our motto is to empower the people to understand the gravity of the deadly disease, Cancer, and for the past two years, we have been actively involved in organising cancer check up camps for the welfare of the community people, free of cost,” Sarin said adding that 16 camps were being held every month in the city and its suburbs.
With a new office launched in Tura in August, 66 camps have been organised and 7384 patients have been screened.
With a mobile unit which is the first of its kind in northeast having mammogram machine and processing units for screening breast cancer, the trust has been able to reach out to the people in the rural areas.
“With the response of the people, lives of many high risk and positive patients suffering from oral, cervix and breast cancer have been saved due to timely screening treatment and counseling,” Sarin added.
In its endeavour to reach out to the people in the urban area, the trust will organise a mega health camp at Assam Club, Laban opposite Presbyterian Church on February 4 coinciding with the World Cancer Day.
By Our Reporter
AMPATI: Deputy Commissioner of Election, South-West Garo Hills, Ampati, will organize the EVM Awareness Campaign in the polling station areas of the district from February 4 to 9. The campaign will be carried out by the Sector Officers along with the Booth Level Officers in their respective sectors in three Assembly Constituencies namely Ampati, Mahendraganj and Salmanpara. The campaign is being organized for spreading awareness on EVMs among the newly registered voters in the district. During the campaign, the voters will be given ‘hands on experience’ to handle the EVMs prior to the election.
By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The Avenues Academy, Shillong on Saturday hosted an evening celebrating the completion of the 10th Annual Winter Workshops in Personal Development and Effective Communication for Children and Young Adults.
The production staged at the St.Mary’s College Auditorium, was titled ‘Imagine’ and featured a confluence of talent with speech choir performances of classic literary works and poems, showcasing the development of speaking skills, body language and confidence of the children graduating from the workshops. Solo and group performances of songs and dances by students of the Academy punctuated the evening, while established Artist and Performer, and Avenues Youth Icon for Performing Arts 2012, Benedict Hynniewta enthralled the crowd with his skills on the Flute.
The Managing Director of Avenues, Mark Stone Laitphlang said that this programme was conducted for the first time to ensure a confluence of various skills for the students in terms of speech, fine arts, education to learn and respect diversity.
The programme was organised with the Bethany Society for the development and grooming of the students.
During the ceremony, participants were also awarded with certificates besides a host of colorful programmes including dance andand choir act were also presented by the participants. Officials of the colleges and students were also present during the ceremony.
Founded in 2003, over 10,000 students have been trained by the Academy as Avenues celebrates a decade of existence in the year ahead.
Washington: Veteran Senator John Kerry, who favours strong ties with India, was on Saturday sworn in as the US Secretary of State, replacing Hillary Clinton as America’s top diplomat.
Kerry, 69, was sworn in at a private ceremony, taking an oath administered by US Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan.
“I was very honoured to be sworn in and very anxious to get to work,” Kerry told media, with his wife Teresa Heinz Kerry by his side.
Besides his wife, he was joined by daughter Vanessa, brother Cameron, and his Senate staff. Kerry is a strong advocate of peace talks between India and Pakistan as he firmly believes that there are few relationships that will be vital in the 21st century for Washington’s ties with New Delhi.
Kerry has an illustrious career spanning over three decades of public life. For the last four years he was Chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
A close confidant of Obama, Kerry in the last four years several times came to the rescue of Obama Administration whenever US relationship with Pakistan reached low ebb. He has a personal relationship with top Pakistani leadership. Kerry’s top priority during his tenure is going to be the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan — in which Pakistan has a crucial role to play. He is also expected to make his first trip to India in the first six months of him occupying the post of top American diplomat.
While it is too early to zero in on the precise dates, Kerry would be leading a high-powered US delegation to India sometime in the middle of this year for next round of India-US Strategic Dialogue; which was started by his predecessor Clinton and former External Affairs Minister S M Krishna in 2010 in Washington.
A Vietnam war veteran, Kerry played a key role in shaping the country’s foreign policy and national security and on a range of issues including Afghanistan and Pakistan, nuclear nonproliferation, and global climate change.
As Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, in 2010, Kerry was instrumental in renewing the New START Treaty, a vital nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia.
During Kerry’s tenure, the State Department is unlikely to see any major change in the US policy towards India, in fact there would be efforts to take it to the next level, officials said, adding that the India-US ties have now reached an auto mode wherein change in personalities is unlikely to derail the relationship. During the confirmation hearing of US Ambassador to India Nancy Powell in February last year, Kerry had said, “There are few relationships that will be as vital in the 21st century as our growing ties with India and its people. On all of the most critical global challenges that we face, India has a central role to play.” “And that means that Washington is going to be looking to New Delhi not only for cooperation, but increasingly for innovation and regional leadership as well,” Kerry had said. “India’s growing significance has been clear to many of us for quite some time now. That’s why President Obama invited Prime Minister Singh to be his guest at the first state dinner, Secretary Clinton has visited India twice, and both countries inaugurated the US-India Strategic Dialogue two years ago. (PTI)
Islamabad: Dozens of heavily-armed Taliban militants attacked a security forces check post in Pakistan’s restive northwest on Saturday, triggering fierce fighting that killed 30 people, including six paramilitary personnel and 12 civilians.
Security forces foiled the raid on the isolated check post, located at Serai Norang area in Lakki Marwat district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, after an intense gun battle that continued for over three years.
The militants, who were armed with rocket-propelled grenades, launched the assault shortly before 4 am. “Twelve terrorists were killed. The bodies of four terrorists, of whom two were wearing suicide jackets, are in the custody of the security forces,” said a security official who did not want to be named. Six personnel of the Frontier Constabulary were killed and eight more were injured. The injured personnel were taken to military hospitals in Bannu and Peshawar, the official said. Ten members of the same family were killed when a rocket fired by the militants hit a house near the check post, police officials told the media. The militants also stormed into the home of a ‘patwari’ and killed two persons, they said. Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan claimed responsibility for the attack. He claimed four suicide bombers were involved in the assault. Ihsan said the attack was carried out in retaliation for the death of two Taliban commanders in recent US drone strikes.
In phone calls to reporters in the northwest, Ihsan accused the Pakistan Army of helping in the drone strikes. Media reports said the Taliban militants used heavy weapons to target the check post.
About 40 militants carried out the attack, reports said. Sounds of explosions and firing were heard in the area for several hours, local residents said. The attack came a day after a Taliban suicide bomber blew himself up outside a Shia mosque at Hangu town in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, killing 29 people and injuring over 50. Five policemen protecting the mosque were among the dead. The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the suicide attack too. Schools, offices and markets in Hangu, which has a sizeable Shia population, remained closed today to protest the suicide attack. (PTI)
Tokyo: Japan’s prime minister vowed on Saturday to defend disputed remote islands from threats by China after a series of confrontations that have raised the risk of an armed clash.
“The security environment surrounding our country is increasingly becoming more severe as we face provocation to our territorial rights,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said.
“I will take the lead to stand up against the present danger and protect the people’s lives and asset, as well as our land, the seas and the air at all costs.” His comments, made in a speech to Japan’s Self-Defense Forces in the country’s south, apparently referred to China’s growing presence near the disputed islands, called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.
The uninhabited islands are controlled by Japan but also claimed by China. Japan’s nationalization of the islands in September triggered violent protests across China, hurting Japanese companies there and the economy. China has sent surveillance ships regularly to waters near the islands, and aircraft from the two sides have trailed each other, raising the risk of missteps that could trigger a clash. Japan has recently launched diplomatic efforts to ease tensions, with China-friendly officials visiting Beijing for talks. Abe’s government last week endorsed a budget bill for this year that included USD 51 billion in proposed defense spending partly aimed at beefing up Japan’s coastal and marine surveillance around islands also claimed by China and Taiwan.
The government also plans to beef up Coast Guard deployment in the area. Later today, Abe was to visit the regional Coast Guard office on the southern island of Okinawa, which is in charge of patrolling in the waters around the disputed islands, to meet the officers. (PTI)
Kohima: Ahead of the February 23 Assembly polls, the Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) received a major jolt after Congress stalwart and former state party president, Chingwang Konyak resigned from the party and decided to campaign for the ruling Naga People’s Front (NPF).
The veteran Congress leader, officially resigned from the party on January 30, citing frustrations and disappointment due to the lack of unity and cohesion in the NPCC.
However, NPCC President S I Jamir told PTI that they were yet to receive any resignation letter from Konyak. Konyak had served the party as its state president, vice president, Congress legislative party leader and was also a Member of Parliament from Nagaland in the 1970s.
Resigning from the Congress after 44 years of association, he, however, remained tight-lipped about joining any other political party. Thanking the people of the state for their continuous support during all this time, he said, “I have decided to resign from the membership of the Indian National Congress Party which, I nurtured since its inception in the state.”
“I have come to this difficult decision as I am frustrated and disappointed by the lack of unity and cohesion in the Nagaland Congress Party which is a divided House, he added.
Meanwhile, Nagaland Chief Minister, Neiphiu Rio also the star campaigner of NPF for the ensuing elections, on Saturday revealed that the Congress leader Chingwang Konyak would be campaigning for the NPF starting from February 5 at Phek district.
Officially launching the election campaign for NPF in the state capital today for Dr. Neikiesalie Nicky Kire, NPF candidate for Kohima Town, Rio said “I will not speak much against the only principal opposition party, as it will only sound as political allegations”. He announced that starting from Phek district, Konyak himself will speak against the Congress during the election campaigns.
He also lashed out at the opposition Congress for backing out of the Joint Legislature Forum (JLF) on Naga political issue at the last moment.
He said that the Congress in Nagaland was for President’s Rule in the state by demanding that if the JLF was to work for the solution to the Naga political problem, all the 60 members of the Legislative Assembly should resign.
Electioneering in Nagaland is gaining momentum with the political parties and independent candidates launching poll campaign. Filing of nomination has also begun but was yet to gain impetus.
The ruling NPF has declared candidates for all the 60 seats, Congress for 57 seats, BJP for 11, NCP for 16, RJD and JDU 3 each. However, there are many independents contesting the poll across the state. (PTI)
New Delhi: Former Intelligence Bureau (IB) director PC Haldar is likely to lead the Central team in the upcoming political dialogues between the Centre and Kuki underground groups in Manipur even as the stage is set for the Central and state Government representatives to begin talks with the United Naga Council (UNC).
The Union Home Ministry has initiated a process to make Mr Haldar an interlocutor and a notitification to this effect is likely to be issued soon.
Sources say the flames over the demand for granting separate statehood are yet to die down whereas the Kuki groups in Manipur have also intensified their demand for creation of a separate state.
The Kuki groups say talks with the Centre in this regard have been on for the past seven years and if their demands are not conceded soon they will intensify their movement. As a formality, appointment of Haldar as the interlocutor would be placed by the Union Home Ministry before the Cabinet Committee on Security.
In all probability, the fifth round of talk with the UNC delegates will begin this month, said the sources.
Pointing out that the UNC in a recent memorandum submitted to the Prime Minister had urged for necessary arrangement to initiate political dialogue within February 17. (UNI)
From Our Correspondent
Agartala: Launching a scathing attack on CPM led Left Front, the BJP on Saturday alleged the democracy in the state is at stake.
The BJP aims to provide corruption-free governance, restoration of democracy and security if it comes to the power in the upcoming Assembly elections, said party’s state unit present Sudhindra Dasgupta.
Speaking at ‘Meet the Press’ held at Agartala Press Club here, Dasgupta warned people of about the consequences of Left Front comes back to power.
“If Left Front led by CPI (M) comes back to power, the state government employees would not get Dearness Allowance for the next two to three years. The state government did not pay any heed when it comes to safeguard the interests of the employees. But they should keep in mind that the employees movement in 1979 brought them to power,” said Dasgupta.
The veteran leader expressed dissatisfaction that the voice of protest had completely lost in the state. “The so called intellectuals in the state are also the ones who prefer to remain silent. Hence we want the present picture in Tripura to change. Later, he said the BJP would release its manifesto for the upcoming Assembly election by Muqtar Abbas Naqvi on February 4 next. The manifesto will emphasis on peace, prosperity and employment generation.
On being asked about the party’s poll prospect, he said the BJP got 2 percent vote in the last Assembly election. “We don’t expect the party to get mandate for forming the government but the BJP will certainly emerge a deciding factor in the electoral battle between Left Front and Congress-INPT combine”, he said.
He further said, party stalwarts like Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Gajendra Chauhan, Smriti Irani, Navjyot Sidhu and Rahul Sinha are expected to visit the state to hit the party’s campaign trail.
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The Shillong Times first appeared as a tabloid weekly on 10th August 1945 under the editorship of Late Sudhindra Bhusan Chaudhuri. In 1958 it was converted to a Daily. Owing to financial constraints, within six months it reverted back to a weekly.
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