Mizoram police to assist Assam in curbing terrorism More at : Mizoram police to assist Assam in curbing terrorism http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/mizoram-police-to-assist-assam-in-curbing-terrorism_100305841.html#ixzz0cycYQLp1

Aizawl, Jan 18 : Two battalions of the Mizoram Armed Police (MAP) are being deployed in Assam to help in the fight against terrorism, an official here said.

“Following the direction of the union home ministry, two battalions of the Mizoram Armed Police (India Reserve Battalions) would be deployed in Udalguri and Darrang districts in eastern Assam adjoining Bhutan,” said an official of the state home department.

“The first batch has already been sent to Assam and the deployment would be completed by this week,” the official told IANS.

The state police forces raise the India Reserve Battalions with full financing from the home ministry and they can be deployed anywhere in the country.

After 25 years of terrorism (1961-1986), the mountainous northeastern state of Mizoram, bordering Myanmar and Bangladesh, is more or less peaceful while Assam has been facing the insurgency problem for the past many years, with the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) being the key separatist outfit.

'North Eastern states most environmentally sustainable'

Chennai, Jan 12

The northeastern states of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Sikkim, along with Uttarakhand, have been rated the highest on the environment sustainable index (ESI), developed by think-tank Centre for Development Finance (CDF) here.

The ESI has been developed as a composite index from 40 key environmental indicators grouped into nine thematic sub-indices -- air quality and pollution, water quality and availability, land use and agriculture, forest and biodiversity, waste management, energy management, health impact, population pressure and environmental budget.

According to the index, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Meghalaya, Tripura and West Bengal figure among the more sustainable states.

Among the larger states - in terms of size and ecomomy - Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh rank low in the chart, while Tamil Nadu and West Bengal have managed to balance economic growth andenvironmental quality.

States with abundant natural resources such as Orissa, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Goa fall in the medium and less sustainable categories in ESI 2009.

"The overall ESI is aggregated from data on various aspects of the environment and environmental policy in order to understand the larger picture of sustainability, while the sub-indices provide more specific information aboutenvironmental sustainability in particular issue areas such as water, air, land and forest cover," CDF director Jessica Wallack.

The CDF has also launched India's first website to assist pollution monitoring.

"The website or the pollution map will aim to support more meaningful tracking of environmental change by creating a repository on pollution monitoring," said Rajesh Rangarajan, senior researcher at CDF and head of the Online Pollution Map Initiative.

He said the website makes existing pollution data more accessible and informative by transforming it into user-friendly visual displays, which link pollution levels and monitoring sites to specific places in the country.

In the first phase, CDF has developed the pollution map for Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.

Mizoram will take back Reang refugees: Tripura chief minister

Agartala, Jan 13 – Mizoram will soon take back around 35,000 Reang tribal refugees who have been staying in Tripura since 1997 after fleeing their state due to ethnic violence, Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar said Wednesday.

‘The Mizoram chief minister during his visit in north Tripura held a meeting with refugee leaders Jan 8. He also asked the refugee leaders to study the proposed land and areas where the immigrants would be settled after their repatriation to Mizoram,’ Sarkar told reporters here.

He had Monday held talks about the repatriation of tribal refugees with Mizoram Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla in New Delhi.

Sarkar said: ‘I have also discussed about the Mizoram refugee repatriation with union home secretary Gopal Krishna Pillai in New Delhi. Pillai will visit Tripura next month.’

Over 35,000 Reang tribal refugees have been sheltered in six north Tripura camps since 1997 after they fled Mizoram following ethnic clashes with the majority Mizo community.

‘The Mizoram chief minister assured us that he would call a Congress legislature party (CLP) meeting immediately to discuss the refugee repatriation issue,’ said Elvis Chorkhy, who led the three-member refugee delegation that met Lal Thanhawla in north Tripura last week.

Lal Thanhawla visited north Tripura’s Mizo-dominated areas and participated in a Mizo cultural function. There are several thousand Mizos residing in north Tripura adjacent to Mizoram.

He had told reporters: ‘It was not possible to constitute an autonomous council for Reang tribals (locally called Bru) residing in Mizoram. The refugees came to Tripura voluntarily and they should go to their homeland willingly.’

‘A road map for the repatriation of tribal refugees from Tripura has been prepared and it was approved by the union home ministry,’ he added.

The tribal refugees are unwilling to return to their homes in Mizoram until their demands for fool-proof security and sufficient financial assistance are accepted by the state government.

‘The Mizoram government’s package for the home-bound refugees suggested a Rs.20,000 cash grant instead of Rs.50,000 as promised earlier. The package also recommended a scattered resettlement of the 35,000 tribal refugees in three different districts of Mizoram – Mamit, Kolashib and Lunglei. We want compact rehabilitation of the tribals in two districts in western Mizoram,’ Chorkhy told IANS.

Three securitymen die in Mizoram road accident

Aizawl: Three security personnel were killed and seven others injured when a car plying between Assam's Silchar and south Mizoram's Lunglei town met with an accident near the Tlawng river in Lunglei district, the police said today.

The police said ten people including the driver were inside the vehicle when the accident took place yesterday.

Three persons died on the spot, the police said.

Six injured persons were flown to Silchar by helicopter while one of the injured was admitted in Lunglei District Hospital, sources said.