From Our Correspondent

NONGPOH: The Seng Longkmie of different localities in Nongpoh has come forward to strongly condemn the three rapists who were involved in raping two minor girls in seperate incidents at Diwon village and Iewmawlong in Ri Bhoi which occurred on Saturday.

The Seng Longkmie namely the Synrop Ki Longkmie Nongpoh Pyllun, Seng Longkmie Nongpoh Center Gate, Seng Treilang ki Longkmie, Iewmawlong and Nongpoh Area Women Welfare Association has condemned the act of the three rapists who were identified as Surat Khymdeit and Macdonal Manih who brutally raped one 14-year-old girl at Diwon Umden. In the second incident, a 11-year-old girl was raped at Iewmawlong, Nongpoh by Makhon on Saturday. The Seng Kynthei of Nongpoh Area, the Organization responsible to look after the welfare of the women in the area on getting the information of the incident, went to visit the victim at Nongpoh Civil Hospital and also met the Superintendent of Police where they demanded for strong action against the culprits.

The Seng Longkmie has also sought the cooperation of the local NGOs and the representatives of different localities to look over such crimes in the village.

From Our Correspondent

TURA: The Youth Wing of th Garo National Council (GNC) will be conducting its General Meeting on October 13 at their Head Office at Araimile at 11:30am.

The meeting will deliberate on the creation of a Separate State for Garo hills and the forthcoming general Assembly elections, Sangma added.

The Seng Samla Mawlai Mawdatbaki has elected its new office bearers with Wallamkupar Kharpran as president, Remarkable Dkhar as vice president, Franky Massar as general secretary, Aibor Rani (asst gen secy), Alvareen Shangpliang (treasurer) besides others.

The sports department of the North Eastern Hill University (NEHU) will organise the inter college basketball tournament 2012 which will kick start today at 9.30am at the basket ball court of the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium at Polo Ground. NEHU vice chancellor Prof A N Rai will be the chief guest on the occasion.

Turabon Kharbuli

Turabon Kharbuli, a resident of Mawpdang and an employee of SE PWD Road NH Circle Shillong passed away on Saturday. Her funeral will be held on Monday at Church of God cemetery at Mawpdang at 2pm.

 Bimila Jana

Bimila Jana (duh Bi), a resident of Mawlai Phudmuri, Pdengshnong passed away on Sunday. Her funeral will be held on Tuesday at Phudmuri Presbyterian Cemetery at 2pm.

 Trelin Kharlyngdoh

Trelin Kharlyngdoh, husband of (L) Nancy Thongni, a resident of Umpling Dong Umbah, passed away on Sunday. His funeral will be held on Wednesday at 1PM at Umpling Presbyterian Cemetry.

Shillong : Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma hands over a cheque to one of the beneficiaries of the Chief Minister’s Special Assistance Scheme (CMSAS) in city on Saturday. (TM)

By Our Reporter

 SHILLONG: The State Government will soon launch a health insurance scheme — Megha Health Insurance Scheme (MHIS) – under which the policy holders will get insurance coverage of Rs 90,000.

Announcing this here on Saturday, Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma said the new scheme, which will be in line with the Central government’s Rashtriya Swastya Bima Yojana (RSBY) which provides insurance coverage to BLP families, is likely to be launched in November.

Dr Sangma was addressing a function organized to distribute cheques to the beneficiaries of the Chief Minister’s Special Assistance Scheme (CMSAS).

The Chief Minister said his Government wanted to have a health insurance scheme which would cover all families residing in the State.

Speaking on the CMSAS, he said this scheme would cover three categories of people- infirm, disabled and widows.

While stating that there would be people who would like call this scheme as a pre-election gimmick, he said, “One cannot expect the Government to stop working since the Assembly election is nearing”.

The Chief Minister said the reason for conceptualization of the scheme could be summed up in one sentence – “My heart told me to do so”.

Stating that this scheme was the brainchild of the Chief Minister, Urban Affairs Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh said, “Dr Sangma is truly a leader with a difference.”

Minister in charge of Information Technology AL Hek called the scheme an innovative idea “which would turn tears of the beneficiaries into pearls”.

In his speech, Mawprem legislator Manas Chaudhuri said several governments and chief ministers have come and gone, but no one of thought of having this kind of scheme to support the poor and neglected.

“We need to applaud the Chief Minister for having the heart for the deprived members of the society,” Chaudhuri said.

Under the scheme, 150 beneficiaries hailing from the capital city and Mylliem are each given assistance of Rs. 500 per month.

From Our Correspondent

 TURA: A covert operation undertaken by Tura police commandos who crossed over to the South West Garo Hills district resulted in a major firefight at Salmanpara village in which one GNLA militant was shot dead while a second gave himself up on Saturday evening.

The slain GNLA cadre has been identified as Liluti Sangma.

The well planned operation began during the morning hours when a hardcore GNLA sympathizer, Sabithson Sangma of Salmanpara was nabbed by policemen in plain clothes when the former had come to Tura to purchase a mobile phone for a senior militant of the banned outfit.

After a sustained interrogation, SWAT commandos from Tura left for Salmanpara village, under Ampati district headquarters, to nab the three militants holed up inside the house of the sympathiser.

The SWAT commandos, however, were greeted with a hail of bullets following which the security personnel succeeded in killing one of them as another surrendered. The third militant escaped from the site.

Police recovered one AK 47 rifle, 40 rounds of ammunition, 5 detonators and GNLA documents from the site of the encounter.

Over Rs 4 lakh GNLA money seized in W’nagar

Meanwhile, Williamnagar police successfully thwarted a move by the GNLA to transfer extortion money after the arrest of two couriers and confiscation of Rs 4.5 lakh from hardware stores of the town on Saturday.

“We received information that GNLA overground workers are picking up the money from several hardware stores in Williamnagar. So we laid a trap with surveillance by police personnel on suspected shops,” Williamnagar police informed.

Surveillance teams spotted two young men entering a hardware store belonging to one Sattaranjan Shaw and Kishore Das where the money was handed over to the two visitors.

The police teams immediately pounced on the GNLA duo and apprehended them along with the shopkeeper Kishore Das.

The bag containing the extorted money was also recovered.

During interrogation the arrested GNLA workers, Elizer Marak and Tangsengbirth Ch Momin revealed that the money — Rs 4,75,000/ collected from all the hardware stores of

Williamnagar — was supposed to be handed over to their new area commander Jimmy Ch Momin.

By Our Reporter

 SHILLONG: The State Cabinet’s decision to allow Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in mining sector and refusal to prohibit rate-hole mining in Meghalaya Mines and Mineral Policy, 2012 has drawn sharp reactions with the Opposition Nationalist People’s Party (NPP) dubbing it as ‘eyewash’.

According to the NPP leader James K Sangma, the State Mining Policy is a meaningless exercise.

“The Government has come up with the policy, which is only an eyewash, keeping the upcoming Assembly election in mind,” Sangma said on Saturday.

“How can a Government think of a mining policy without bringing a blanket ban on primitive rat-hole mining?” he asked.

The State Cabinet on Friday approved the controversial Meghalaya Mines and Minerals Policy which allows miners to continue with rat-hole coal mining.

Deputy Chief Minister Bindo Lanong, who also handles the mining and geology portfolio, on Friday said, “There will be war if we do away with rat-hole mining.”

“To bring in FDI means one has to go for scientific ways of mining. But this is not going to happen if the government does not do away with rat-hole mining,” he said.

The NPP legislator said the Government should have addressed various issues like safety of miners and keeping a check on deployment of child labour in mines.

The decision to allow FDI in mining sector is going to have a huge impact on small time miners, he said.

Echoing a similar view, the BJP also opposed the government decision to allow FDI in mining sector.

According BJP general secretary Dipayan Chakraborty, the Government should have roped in investment from within the country

Referring to Lafarge, Chakraborty said, “The FDI will lead to sellout of the natural resources of the State.”

“The Government should have taken steps to convince the small time miners to adopt scientific form of mining,” Chakraborty said.

On the other hand, Prof BS Mipun, Dean, NEHU School of Human and Environmental Science, has a different take on rat-hole mining.

According to him, rat-hole mining is far better than open cast mining.

“Open-cast mining creates more environmental pollution when compared to rat-hole mining,” he said

As the State does have huge deposits of coal, Prof Mipun said, “Rat-hole mining is the only option.”

When pointed out about the risks on the life of miners who resort to rat-hole mining, Prof Mipun said untoward incidents could take place anywhere.

According to him, FDI is the only solution for the country like India and the small time miners would be benefited more with the coming of such investment.