HEADLINES

1. World Bank to give Rs 13,000 crore for infrastructrual development of power generation facilities in North East.
2. Slow implementation of projects, not fund crunch for lack of infrastructure development in Mizoram, says Centre’s statistics.
3. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik back former Lok Sabha Speaker, PA Sangma for President’s post.
4. Arunachal Pradesh Parliamentary Secretary for Home, Gadam Ete says, no breakdown of law and order in state.
5. Physically challenged students planted more than 300 seedlings in Guwahati.
6. North Eastern states benefit from scheme of Coaching for Scheduled Tribes and Vocational Training in Tribal areas
7. Lafarge says it complies with environmental norms for extracting limestone from Meghalaya for its Bangladesh plant.

NEWS IN ORDER

WORLD BANK-POWER

World Bank would give Rs 13,000 crore for infrastructrual development of power generation facilities in the North East and would be executed by Power Grid Corporation of India. PGCIL chairman-cum-managing director RN Nayak said, the company was keen to improve the power scenario in the region and had executed several long term and short term projects. Nayak was on a visit to the newly built 400/132 KV power substation at Srikona, near Silchar town which was completed by PGCIL in 14 months and it would start functioning by May 31. The station will receive 726 MW power from Palatana in Tripura and this will be distributed to Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya, Manipur and Mizoram which will greatly improve the power scenario of the region, he informed. The PGCIL was building an 800KV substation in Arunachal Pradesh and another substation at Byrnihat in Meghalaya which was nearing completion, he said.

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FUNDS

Slow implementation of projects and not fund crunch seems to be the reason for lack of infrastructure development in the northeastern state of Mizoram, statistics given by the Centre indicate. Minister for DoNER, Paban Singh Ghatowar yesterday presented figures in the Rajya Sabha according to which, the state could only utilise Rs 1,684 crore in the last three years out of Rs 11,304 crore released by the DoNER Ministry. Replying to a question, Ghatowar said his Ministry had released a total of Rs 3,191 crore for nine projects in the education sector to the state under the Non-Lapsable Central Pool of Resources scheme in the last three years out of which, only Rs 60 crore has been utilised. The Ministry had given a total of Rs 513 crore to Mizoram in 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12 but the state has not been able to utilise the funds.

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NEXT PRESIDENT

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa yesterday joined hands with her Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik in backing former Lok Sabha Speaker P A Sangma for the President’s post. Jayalalithaa said, Sangma not only belongs to a tribal community but also eminently qualified to be the President of “our great nation.” During the past 60 years of the republic of India, while eminent personalities belonging to various communities and diverse walks of life have graced the office of the Rashtrapati, no one belonging to a tribal community has had the opportunity so far, Jayalalithaa said. As such, the AIADMK “takes pride” in supporting the candidature of Sangma, an NCP leader, she added. Her statement came after Patnaik announced in Bhubaneswar BJD’s support to the 65-year-old tribal leader from the Northeastern state of Meghalaya for the post. Jayalalithaa and Patnaik are the two leaders from the regional parties to have come out with their choice for the Presidency even as Congress and BJP are keeping their cards close to their chest.

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ARUNACHAL

Arunachal Pradesh Parliamentary Secretary for Home Gadam Ete has asserted that there was no breakdown of law and order in the state as alleged. The All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union has called for a 24-hour state-wide bandh demanding a ‘white paper’ from the government on the state’s financial position besides steps to control deteriorating law and order situation. Describing the bandh as “illegal and unjustified” he said, the state government will take stern action against the bandh callers.

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PLANTATION

In a unique plantation drive, blind students participated and planted more than 300 seedlings in Guwahati, sending an inspiring message to the society. The initiative was undertaken by Social Forestry Division of Assam Forest at the Guwahati Blind High School under the Chief Minister’s Assam Vikash Yojana. The visually challenged students expressed their delight while planting the seedlings in their school premises.  Speaking on the occasion, DFO of Guwahati Social Forestry Division Satyendra Singh said, if the visually challenged students can plant trees for the noble cause of environmental protection, there is no reason others should not follow. He also appealed to the public to plant at least one seedling this monsoon.

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TRAINING

A number of trainees have benefited from the scheme of Coaching for Scheduled Tribes and Vocational Training in Tribal areas being implemented by the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs. The number of Vocational Training and Coaching and the number of trainees for which grant-in-aid released to the state governments in North Eastern region during 2011-12 was 700 in Meghalaya, 200 in Assam, 60 in Nagaland and 40 in Manipur. The scheme is a need based and demand driven scheme. Funds are released to state governments/NGOs or other agencies on receipt of complete proposals, recommendation of State Level Committee along with inspection report of District Collectors and subject to availability of funds under these schemes.

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LAFARGE

Cement giant Lafarge Surma Cement Ltd, which is extracting limestone from Meghalaya for its Bangladesh plant, yesterday said it was complying with environmental norms for its mines. Lafarge Surma Cements, CEO Tarek Elba told reporters that Lafarge is following top environmental norms in its operations as adopted by the company operation elsewhere in Europe. The environmental norms adhered to was important for sustainable development of the area in which the company has its operations, he said. As per the environmental norms, the company said it would replace the 935 trees in the mining sites with four lakh trees within a 20 year span in the state. An amount of Rs 3 crore had been released to the Meghalaya government for the purpose, N Sharma, Vice- President, Lafarge Umiam Mining Pvt Ltd, said. LUMPL has been mining limestone at its 935 ha mine and transports raw limestone through a 17 km long conveyor belt to the LSC plant in Chatak in Bangladesh since 2005.

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