Fence hits panel wall

Villagers nix BSF plan

Shillong, Feb. 9 : The BSF move to fence the 130-km-long border in Khasi-Jaintia Hills has run into opposition with the Co-ordination Committee on International Border Fencing (CCIBF), comprising pressure groups, reiterating that the fencing be initiated close to the zero line and not 150 yards away from it. The BSF inspector-general of Assam-Meghalaya frontier, Prithvi Raj, had recently said that the fencing should be carried out 150 yards away from the zero line, at the earliest. The IG also blamed the administration for not being able to acquire land and move ahead with the fencing project. Reacting to this, the spokesperson for the CCIB, G.H. Kharshanlor, today said that fencing within 150 yards was not acceptable to them. “We had met chief minister D.D. Lapang at the end of last year and he had directed the National Building Construction Company (NBCC) to cancel the already floated tender for the fencing work, Kharshanlor said. During the internal security meeting of chief ministers in New Delhi yesterday, Lapang said that villagers feared they would not be able to harvest their crop beyond the fence, if the work was initiated 150 yards away from the zero line. Union home minister P. Chidambaram chaired the meeting. According to the chief minister, vast fertile land would be lost if the fence is erected 150 yards away from the zero line. Welcoming the views expressed by the chief minister on border fencing, Kharshanlor said the committee would follow up the matter during a meeting with Lapang once he returns from New Delhi. “We will not allow the NBCC to construct border fencing 150 yards away from the zero line, come what may,” Kharshanlor added. He also said the people residing along the border and the heads of the traditional bodies should be taken into confidence before fencing was carried out. The BSF inspector-general had earlier offered the services of the Mahila BSF battalion to assist the women in border areas while they go for farming after construction of the fence. He had assured that even if the fencing started within 150 yards from the zero line, the BSF would erect gates for free movement of the farmers from Meghalaya. According to the BSF, border fencing will minimise transborder crimes, including smuggling.

Shillong screenplay hits facility hurdle

Filmmaker Shyam Benegal with chief minister D.D. Lapang in Shillong on Thursday. A Telegraph picture

Shillong, Feb. 7 : Meghalaya could become the next hot destination for filmmakers if only it could provide the necessary infrastructure.

The members of the state task force for promoting Meghalaya as a film destination, who met for the first time today, expressed concern over the lack of basic facilities for filmmakers to shoot films in Shillong.

The task force was constituted by the state government on November 24 last year.

Well-known filmmaker Shyam Benegal, who is a member of the task force, told the meeting that Meghalaya should explore ways and means to provide more infrastructure facilities and incentives to attract people from the film industry to Shillong.

Benegal said if the government did not improve infrastructure facilities and provide incentives, it would be difficult for filmmakers to come to Shillong to shoot films.

The commissioner and secretary of industries, Arindam Som, who attended the meeting, admitted that Meghalaya lacked the basic infrastructure, including accommodation and transportation.

“We do not have enough hotels to accommodate a big team of film producers,” Som said, adding that Meghalaya also lacked transport facilities.

The task force has decided to form a sub-committee to formulate within a month a policy that can help local service providers to construct more hotels and other infrastructure facilities.

The task force will hold its next meeting after the committee submits its report.

Creating a website, which would project Meghalaya as a film destination, is also on the cards.

Benegal, who arrived here yesterday, met chief minister D.D. Lapang to discuss the possibilities of film shooting in Shillong.

Lapang had met Tito Juneja, the producer of Har Pal, a film partially shot in Shillong, on December 13 last year, to explore the entry of Bollywood into the city known as the Scotland of the East.

Apex court stops French firm’s mining in Meghalaya

New Delhi, Feb 5  The Supreme Court Friday ordered French firm Lafarge, involved in mining limestone in Meghalaya for its cement plants in Bangladesh, to immediately stop its mining operations in the state.

The bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Justice S.H. Kapadia and Justice Aftab Alam ordered Lafarge to stop mining following allegations that the firm has raised funds from various international banks after mortgaging the state’s land it had fraudulently transferred to itself.

The bench ordered Lafarge Umiam Mining Pvt Ltd to stop its mining operations in Meghalaya on a lawsuit by a civil society group, Shella Action Committee, of the East Khasi Hills district in state.
The lawsuit alleged that by violating the country’s constitutional provisions, the French firm has transferred the land belonging to tribals to itself in collusion with some local groups.
The lawsuit alleged that the firm later “mortgaged the tribal land to foreign banks like the Asian Development Bank, the International Finance Corporation, the Deutsche Investitutions und Entwicklungsgesellschaft, the European Investment Bank, the Arab Bangladesh Bank and the Standard Chartered Bank”.
“The firm mortgaged the land to raise loan of 153 million US dollars,” said the lawsuit of the tribal society.
Asking Lafarge to stop its mining operations, the bench told the firm to apprise it within three days about its mined limestone that is lying at a site.
The bench earlier on Nov 23, 2007, had allowed the firm to continue its mining operations in the state. The mining had been stopped in April 2007 by the union ministry of environment and forests on the ground that it had fraudulently obtained environment clearance for the project.
A special environment bench, headed by Chief Justice Balakrishnan, said Lafarge would be allowed to restart its mining – subject to the outcome of a cost-benefit analysis of the firm’s proposal to set up a cement plant in Meghalaya.
The bench, which also included erstwhile Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice S.H. Kapadia, allowed Lafarge to continue mining for its cement factory in Bangladesh on the recommendations of senior counsel Harish Salve, who has been assisting the court in the matter.
Salve had made the recommendation to allow Lafarge to continue its limestone mining in the Khasi Hills near village Nongtrai after the French firm’s non-executive chairman and former HDFC chairman Deepak S. Parekh explained to him that the deposit of the Nongtrai mines could be best utilized by the Bangladesh plant.
Parekh in his explanatory note had told Salve that “the limestone from the mines can be best utilized in Lafarge’s Bangladesh plant as the harsh terrain of the area and the poor quality of roads makes it economically unviable to transport limestone or cement from the mining site of Nongtrai to the markets in Meghalaya”.

Cannot demote a former CM: Meghalaya minister

SHILLONG: Amid a row over the elevation of three MLAs of the ruling Congress-led alliance to the rank of chief minister, Meghalaya deputy chief minister Mukul Sangma today asserted that a legislators who was a chief minister in the past cannot be "demoted".

"It is not proper for any political arrangement where an MLA who was a former chief minister is demoted. This has been a traditional in Meghalaya," Sangma, also in charge of Finance department, told reporters.

He said one must understand the "political management" that is required to be resorted to in a coalition government.

"We have MLAs, who happen to be former chief ministers. So long as they are MLAs, it is befitting for us to recognize and acknowledge their services and give them the status of chief minister," Sangma said.

After the elevation of the rank and status of Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee president Friday Lyngdoh to the rank and status of chief minister, there are four political leaders in the ruling Congress-led alliance to enjoy that status.

Two leaders of United Democratic Party (UDP), which is the main partner in the alliance, also enjoys the same status - State Planning Board chairman Donkupar Roy and Meghalaya Economic Development Council chairman JD Rymbai.

Speaker to consult experts on Hek status

Shillong Feb. 3: Meghalaya Speaker Charles Pyngrope today said he would consult legal experts regarding disclosure of the status of lone BJP legislator A.L. Hek after he joined the Congress.

Pressure has been mounting on the Assembly secretariat to divulge information on what ground it had been declared that Hek did not fall under the anti-defection rule.

BJP state president H.S. Syiemlieh had sought relevant papers on Hek’s status as a legislator in December last year.

On January 22, a voter had filed an application under the Right to Information Act, seeking detailed information on how Hek could be called a Congress MLA since he had not resigned from the BJP.

D.B. Wanshnong from Pynthorumkhrah (Hek’s constituency), filed the RTI before the public information officer, Meghalaya Legislative Assembly secretariat, with an appeal to provide all information related to Hek’s present status.

According to the Speaker’s ruling, Hek cannot fall under the anti-defection rule as the complaint against the MLA must be lodged by another BJP legislator and not by the party president. Moreover, the legislature wing of the BJP had merged with the Congress, giving no room for the application of anti-defection rule in the case of Hek.

However, the Speaker today said he would seek legal opinion whether information on Hek’s status could be provided to the BJP president and the RTI applicant. “I have not seen the RTI application. But there is no harm in giving information, provided that there are no legal complications.”

This is the first time that an RTI application has been filed in Meghalaya, seeking papers on the Speaker’s ruling under the anti-defection rule.

Meghalaya Tourism Dept holds meeting in cave!

Shillong, Feb 4 – Maldives held its Cabinet meeting underneath the pristine Indian Ocean, Nepal atop the Sun-kissed Mt. Everest and now Meghalaya’s Tourism department officials held theirs inside a dimly-lit cave!

Tourism officials, village council heads, NGOs, tour operators and taxi drivers huddled deep inside the Syndai or Jogindra Cave in Jaintia Hills along the Indo-Bangla border on Tuesday with only solar lanterns and Dongmusas (lighted bamboo torches) as accompaniments during the meeting.

The conference room was of impressive proportions, 25 metre high and 30 metre wide, architectured with stalactites and stalagmites. This place was the favoured hideout for erstwhile Jaintia royals in times of war for strategising and regrouping.

Tuesday’s meeting, however, was no secret. Journalists from print and visual media covered the meeting and the cave reverberated with ideas and discussions of all the stakeholders on how best to promote tourism in Jaintia Hills district, having the longest cave in Asia and perhaps in the world.

“We met to promote tourism, but it was also an effort to draw attention on the issue of cave preservation and how the caves can augment income for the locals through adventure tourism,” Barnari Mawlong, Amlarem’s Additional Deputy Commissioner, who chaired the meeting and brain behind the unique convergence, told The Assam Tribune.

Many of the caves in Jaintia Hills are under threat due to rampant unscientific mining by cement plants in the district. Krem Lait Phrah-Um Im-Labit in the district has been mapped as one of the longest caves in Asia by speleologists, but the cave is under threat due to limestone mining in the area.

The Meghalaya Adventurers’ Association filed a writ petition recently in the Supreme Court, which in turn directed that a team of experts be appointed to assess whether increasing industrial activity was threatening the caves in Jaintia Hills.

The organisation so far has registered and recorded over 1,000 caves in Meghalaya of which 520 caves has been mapped yielding a cave passage of 280 kms.

The unique meeting had an immediate bearing with Forest and Environment Minister, RC Laloo saying: “these caves need to be protected; we are looking in terms of strengthening the Forest and Environment department.

Thai keen to invest in Meghalaya

Shillong, Feb 2

Thailand is keen to explore investment opportunities in Meghalaya with proposals ranging from tourism, infrastructure and aviation, Thai Ambassador to India Krit Kraichitt said.

''We are exploring all the investment feasibility in Meghalaya which Thai entrepreneurs can invest here,'' he told UNI.

Under the Thai's Look West Policy, Mr Kraichitt said Thailand is also trying to include India's North East tourism potential in our tourism circuit.

''The North East has a lot to offer to the world. I have seen Assam and Meghalaya's potential and we also visit Nagaland to explore our investment opportunities,'' the Thai Ambassador said.

Meghalaya Governor RS Mooshahary, who met the Thai envoy to India, said Meghalaya and North East as a whole has a greater role to play in boosting bilateral trade between India and Thailand.

''Meghalaya is one of the most peaceful states in the Northeast and investment from Thailand is welcome here anytime,'' Mr Mooshahary said.