This region is blessed with wonderful indigenous music as well as talented singers who have made a remarkable mark of themselves in the field of music.
Music here is a craze and it plays an integral part in the lives of the people irrespective of all age groups.
With the advent and rise of private FM Channels as well as online music, majority of the people in the Northeast are not as lucky as other parts of the country to listen to this music either due to limited access or some other reasons.
In order to bridge this gap telecom giant Bharti Airtel has launched a service called “Mirchi Mobile” in collaboration with Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM, in the Northeastern region.
One simply needs to dial 59830 to listen up to 100 minutes of music from any of the Radio Mirchi FM stations in the country for a minimal charge of Rs 10 per week.
Previously people could listen to FM music on mobiles handsets which had the facility of radio, but now people can access Mirchi Mobile on handsets which do not have the facility of radio also. One can access to music sitting in any part of the country at the touch of a button.
This service the first of its kind in the country, was introduced also because of peoples desire to listen to music in their own language, who are residing outside their native places. Mirchi Mobile was initially available to Airtel customers in Delhi and Mumbai, but now it is available to customers in Assam and Northeast.
For easy guidance four languages Assamese, Bengali, Hindi and English are made available to the customers.This service is currently powered by Spice Digital, a leader of Music-On-Demand services for Indian and International operators.
Earlier, a person who was working in the remote corner of the country in Phek in Nagaland or Ziro in Arunachal Pradesh couldn’t imagine of listening to FM music, but now with Mirchi Mobile one can instantly listen to his favorite music at the touch of a button.
With the introduction of this service Airtel has done a wonderful job of bridging this gap of music from outside to the Northeast India.
In the future, Airtel hopes there will be more such innovative and creative ideas by the company for the benefit of the customers of this region as well as the country.
Besides doing business, Bharti Airtel has been remarkably serving the people of the region by bringing them closer to innovations and happenings outside our region.
Radio on Mobile Courtesy Airtel
‘Gogoi Must Sack Tainted Ministers, Face Full Inquiry’
Former Assam CM Prafulla Kumar Mahanta tells KUNAL MAJUMDER that Tarun Gogoi is raking up old cases to hide current Congress scams
SUDDENLY YOU ARE BACK IN THE NEWS WITH CORRUPTION CHARGES AGAINST YOU. WHAT HAPPENED?
A PIL was filled in the Supreme Court against me nine years ago on a Letter of Credit (LoC) scam. [Mahanta was accused of being involved in a Rs 400 crore scam of purchase of land by the state veterinary department in the 1990s.] Suddenly it was withdrawn. Now the Assam government, which has been facing the heat over the Rs 1,000 crore North Cachar (NC) Hills scam, is using this excuse to divert the attention of the public and the media from this big financial scam. [NC Hills scam involves militants swindling development funds meant for the area.
BUT AREN’T YOU MAKING THESE ALLEGATIONS IN RETALIATION?
Why didn’t they take steps against me in the past nine years? When a PIL was filed in the Gauhati High Court against me in the LoC scam case, the high court had accepted the views stated by the then Governor Lt Gen SK Sinha in his book and rejected the PIL.
THE GOVERNMENT SPOKESPERSON SAYS THE GOVERNOR MERELY WITHHELD HIS DECISION. HE NEVER EXONERATED YOU.
Sinha had clearly mentioned in his book that he could not allow the CBI to prosecute me due to lack of prima facie evidence against me. Tarun Gogoi should read Sinha’s book and the high court ruling of 1999 on the PIL before accusing me. Moreover, the CBI has already investigated the case and the matter is sub-judice.
Instead, Gogoi should face a proper inquiry for the NC Hills scam. As the then Home Minister [a portfolio Mahanta held as the Chief Minister], I had to face the high court in the LoC scam case and a number of commissions in the secret killing (of ULFA relatives) cases, but why is Gogoi, as Finance Minister of the state, afraid of facing the CBI in NC Hills scam case? If he and any of his Cabinet ministers are not involved, why doesn’t he allow the CBI to conduct a proper inquiry?
BUT THE GOVERNMENT HAS ORDERED AN INQUIRY. HASN’T IT?
The government has only asked the CBI to investigate four cases. Why doesn’t Gogoi allow the CBI to look into all the cases? It has been asked to investigate only embezzlement of Rs 36 crore while the amount of Central fund siphoned off was Rs 1,000 crore. Plus, the FIR was lodged only against five departments in NC Hills, which is only the tip of the iceberg. Some of the cases are handed over to the anti-corruption department instead of the CBI, which is under the Assam government. This is one of the biggest scams in India.
During the LoC scam, the Congress worked hard to show the involvement of the then AGP government. CBI investigator VN Verma had unearthed evidence to show the involvement of former chief minister Hiteswar Saikia in the LoC scam. But when he asked for permission to raid Saikia’s residence, he was removed from the case.
SO, YOU ARE SURE THERE WILL BE NO PRESSURE ON THE CBI?
I have requested the Centre not to put any political pressure on the CBI and let it do its job. [Mahanta met Home Minister P Chidambaram in this context]. To ensure free and fair CBI inquiry into the NC Hills scam, Gogoi has to get rid of his seven tainted ministers. He doesn’t have the courage to face the truth; even the probe into the LoC scam shows involvement of Congress leaders. I was not involved in the scam. It was during the Congress government that the scam surfaced.
Manipur Still Facing Fuel Shortage
Although the economic blockade has been temporarily lifted, Manipur is still reeling from an acute shortage of petroleum products, LPG cylinders and other essential commodities due to a boycott call given by operators of tankers and other freight trucks.
The truck operators, including fuel tankers, have refused to ply their vehicles along the NH-53 and NH-39.
Consequently, once again, the masses in Manipur are deprived of their fresh supplies.
"What can we do? If it continues, we will not be able to live. This is a very inhuman act. We all should join together and work out on a solution to end this issue. I suggest, people from all walks of life should come and jointly work to resolve this issue," observed Jibonmala Devi, a resident.
Transport operators have sought stringent action against the extortion and harassment by various entities such as NSCN-IM and several other militant factions along the national highways.
Meanwhile, the boycott by the transporters has resulted in steep hike in the cost of petrol with hoarders and black marketers capitalising on the plight of the locals.
Coco Rocha Victoria's Secret's Newest Model
Mrs. James Conran, a.k.a. model Coco Rocha, has a new gig, other than being a wife: she's one of the faces for Victoria's Secret's Pink collection.
Rocha first announced her good news on Twitter, and images of her in Pink's fall fashions can already be found online.
Does this mean she will get her wings and become an Angel, walking in Victoria's Secret's fashion show this fall? Only time will tell...
Larissa Riquelme, Lingerie Model, Will Run Naked If Paraguay Wins World Cup
Paraguay's success at the World Cup continued on Tuesday, with the country's soccer team beating Japan on penalty kicks to advance to the tournament's quarterfinals. Now, with only eight teams remaining, the Paraguayans may have a few more fans to help win it all.
Larissa Riquelme, a curvy lingerie model who loves her national team, has been cheering the Paraguay squad on from Asuncion, clad in revealing outfits. The 24-year-old beauty has pledged to run naked through the streets "with my body painted with the colors of Paraguay" if Paraguay wins the World Cup.
The gorgeous football fanatic is not the first person to promise to streak in the event of a World Cup win. Argentina's coach Diego Maradona was the first prominent person to issue such a guarantee, and his team has also made the quarterfinals. Scroll down for pictures of Riquelme cheering her team on. Are you rooting for Paraguay now?
Their Way or The Highway
By Samudra Gupta Kashyap
For those still not familiar with the issue: two blockades affected Manipur in the past months. While the All Naga Students’ Association of Manipur (ANSAM), United Naga Council (UNC) and some other Naga organisations of the state on April 11 launched a blockade of the two crucial national highways within the state — NH-39 and NH-53, their demand was to put on hold an election to the autonomous district councils in the five hill districts. The other was a blockade by the Naga Students’ Federation (NSF) on NH-39 in Nagaland, which links Manipur to rest of India through Nagaland, and began on May 3. The NSF problem was that that a student delegation was refused permission to enter Manipur to attend a meeting of Naga student bodies at Ukhrul.
A landlocked state, Manipur is almost entirely dependent on the two national highways for its supplies as well as travel to the outside world. And, for any outfit, underground or overground, the best available mode of protest is to block the highways, more particularly NH-39. On any given day, at least 100 trucks and oil and LPG tankers drive up 115 kms of NH-39 through Nagaland into Manipur, which also happens to be a highway where militant groups almost freely collect “taxes” as the authorities pretend not to have seen them run their writ.
But, though on the surface the two blockades were for two specific reasons, there is no denying the fact that they were also connected to the much-hyped visit of NSCN(IM) general secretary Thuingaleng Muivah to his native village Somdal in Ukhrul district of Manipur. Though the Union home ministry had specifically instructed the Manipur government to ensure Muivah’s visit to his native village, Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh refused, contending that there were numerous cases against Muivah in the state, and the moment he enters, Manipur Police would arrest him. Muivah, also “ato kilonser” (prime minister) of the underground “Government of the People’s Republic of Nagalim”, also gets Z+ protection from the government!
Muivah, in ceasefire with the government since 1997, is free to move about inside Nagaland. But he wants to also tour the Naga-inhabited districts — Senapati, Ukhrul, Chandel and Tamenglong — because the NSCN(IM) wants a “Greater Nagalim” that includes “Naga-inhabited areas” of not just Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh but also Myanmar!
Thanks to the Centre’s intervention, Muivah temporarily put off his visit to Somdal. And thanks to civil society pressure, the student bodies also finally withdrew their blockades. But, by then, Manipur had already undergone a 66-day ordeal, with stocks drying up and prices — of whatever little was left — skyrocketing. The state government did move a few hundred trucks under heavy security through NH-53, a route that is not just longer than NH-39, but also nothing more than a dirt track in large portions. But, even as the blockades have been called off, truckers continue not to ply on NH-39 till the authorities ensured that extortions were stopped.
The NH-39 story, incidentally, also applies to several other national highways in the Northeast. Extortion, collection of illegal taxes, harassment over donations, blockades, damage to vehicles — these are common to highways especially in Assam, Nagaland, Meghalaya and Manipur. An inquiry instituted by the government of Assam a couple of years ago had revealed how a nexus of corrupt officers, politicians and militants squeezed huge sums of money from truckers entering Assam from West Bengal. Three years after that inquiry report, trucks continue to be fleeced on the inter-state check gates.
Extortions apart, the condition of most of the so-called national highways in the Northeastern region is also highly deplorable. Take for instance NH-53 and NH-150, of which the former connects Manipur through the Barak Valley in southern Assam, and the latter through Mizoram further south via Barak Valley. While most of the 220-km stretch of the 320-km NH-53 between Jiribam (on the border) and Imphal is nothing but a dirt track, then 220 kms into the state, the 523-km stretch of the 700-km NH-150 that passes through Manipur is even worse, making it impossible to predict how long it would to take to cover those distances. (Leave aside the landslides that play havoc with roads: the Dibang Valley district in Arunachal Pradesh has been cut off since March 31, and nobody seems to be bothered.)
People in the region are now talking about who gained what out of the 66-day blockade. But the basic question is yet to be addressed — how long will highway blockades continue to be used to hold people to ransom?
'Ketchup Colonel' Runs From Pillar to Post to Prove Innocence
By Kingshuk Nag
Instead, the militants — of the Assam Commando Group and captured in south Assam in August 2003 — were handed over to the civil authorities. But Kohli's bosses would not relent: his immediate superior, a brigadier, told him that "kills" in encounters were important and this is what mattered. If he could not kill anyone, then at least a "fake" encounter should be staged. An NDA cadet and brought up under the culture of obedience, Kohli made, what it seems now, the mistake of his life.
He dressed up five men and made them lie down on the ground. They were sprayed with ketchup and pictures were taken of them. The bosses were happy, so was Kohli. He did not have to kill anybody and his superiors were contented with pictures of the purported kill. Now the bosses, in order to keep the name of the regiment high, cajoled Kohli to recommend gallantry awards for his men (not for himself).
It was at this point that an anonymous complaint brought the lid off. An inquiry followed and then Kohli was court-martialled. At the end of it, he was dismissed. This was in November 2004, a little over a year and three months after that fateful night of August 17-18, 2003, when the fake encounter took place. Also dismissed was a junior of Kohli, the major for whose benefit the colonel had recommended a gallantry medal.
All through his court-marital proceedings, Kohli kept quiet and did not implicate his brigadier. It now transpires that plea-bargaining was going on through Kohli's 'defender', a lieutenant colonel. Kohli was told that if he pleaded guilty he would be left off with a two-year seniority loss. As a result of this, Kohli pleaded guilty, only to be dismissed. Actually Kohli was fooled: he was given to understand that there was plea-bargaining, but on the records of the court-martial proceedings there was no mention of this.
Now Kohli opened up: he contended that the fake encounter had been staged on the orders of his brigadier, S S Rao, and that this was in the knowledge of the brigadier's boss — Major General Ravinder Singh, general officer commanding, 57 Mountain Division. What is more, Kohli submitted taped transcripts of the conversation that he had with the brigadier. Following this, an inquiry was ordered and at the end of the investigation and general court-martial, Brigadier S S Rao was also dismissed from service. Kohli was happy because he had proven his point and looked forward to be reinstated.
But the then chief of the Army staff, who had to confirm the sentence of the general court-martial, let off the brigadier with forfeiture of five years of seniority and a severe reprimand. The major who had earlier been dismissed was also taken back to service after being reprimanded and loss of seniority of five years.
But funnily enough, Kohli was given no relief. The epithet of "Ketchup Colonel" had stuck on him and nobody wanted to reinstate him. After Kohli pleaded for many years, the Army headquarters decided to have a relook at the whole issue and take a holistic view. The matter has now been examined by the Army headquarters and the defence ministry.
The officials have agreed on file that Kohli's contention was valid and that it had been proven that the colonel had acted on the orders of his superiors. Moreover, Kohli had no personal interest in the matter. It also suggested that Kohli should be reinstated with five years' loss of service for the purposes of pension and promotion and a severe reprimand. But nobody is willing to bell the cat and actually order that he be reinstated, the stigma of "Ketchup Colonel" being so severe.
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