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| A street sculpture between Naharlagun and Itanagar, the capital of Arunachal Pradesh, displays posters of AICC president Sonia Gandhi during her recent visit to the state. Picture by Eastern Projections |
Mizoram, particularly its capital town of Aizawl, has notched up the dubious reputation of having the second highest incidence of cancer in the world. According to the Union health ministry?s atlas of cancer, on an average, 40 in every lakh suffer from stomach cancer in the state. Mizoram is second only to Japan in this scourge.
This shocking information about idyllic Mizoram came to the fore when data on cancer, culled from 105 hospitals spread over 82 districts in the country, was analysed.
A leading doctor of Aizawl, Eric Zamaiwa, said the high incidence of stomach cancer could be attributed to either genetic aberration or environmental factors. According to a senior official of the department of health services of the Mizoram government, the Centre has asked the Indian Council of Medical Research to conduct a probe into this abnormal incidence of stomach cancer among the Mizos in the hill state.
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| Ibobi Singh |
The Okram Ibobi Singh government?s policy to rationalise the transfer and posting of schoolteachers across the length and breath of the state has stirred a hornet?s nest. Irked by ?irrational? transfers, many teachers have threatened to take voluntary retirement if the policy is not reviewed and corrected. The teachers have reasons to be ?disturbed?.
The transfer includes some teachers, who have passed away, and many, who have retired. That is not all. Some teachers have been transferred to posts below their current designations. For instance, several high school headmasters have been transferred to the posts of primary school teachers. Pressure from students facing a shortage of teachers in many schools, particularly in the hills, has forced the Ibobi Singh government to effect a mass transfer of 1,300 teachers at one go. However, the result is appalling. The government has been also accused of favouritism.
General Joseph Warren Stilwell, chief of staff to the Allied Forces in the World War II, would have been a happy man today. The Arunachal Pradesh government is reconstructing a portion of the historical Stilwell Road, conceptualised by the general who died a war hero at the age of 63. A portion of the 1,726-km road, stretching from Ledo in Assam to Kuerming in China, is being reconstructed in accordance to the Centre?s ?look east policy?.
While travelling on the 60-km road from Ledo to Pangsau Pass within India, one can feel the efforts put in to construct the double-track all-weather road at an estimated cost of $137 lakh in a record two-and-a-half years from December 1942 to May 1945. Despite its deplorable condition, the portion which is intact after six decades proves the engineering skill of the Americans, who had brought road construction machinery like bulldozers, cranes, power shovels and caterpillars from the US production lines to build the road.
Arunachal Pradesh research minister Chowna Mein, who was on a goodwill mission to Pangsau Pass along with Speaker Setoong Sena and mediapersons, said the road held the key to regional co-operation. After being rebuilt, it will link the Southeast Asian nations.
If Manipur police are to be believed, traffic in the capital city of Imphal has become so congested that it is very difficult to reach destinations on time.
Earlier this month, police failed to produce eight officials of the Food Corporation of India before the court of chief judicial magistrate, Imphal, picked up on the charge of having links with militants.
The court sought an explanation from the investigating officer concerned for his failure to comply with its order. The explanation given was that the police along with the accused could not reach the court on time because of a traffic jam caused by a marriage procession. Of course, there is no need to seek any further explanation from the investigating officer.
Development takes place in the backward areas first, or at least it should. However, for the past 40 years, Mon, Tuensang, Kiphire and Peren in Nagaland have retained their status as backward areas.
Hundreds of crores of rupees have been pumped into these areas since the days of NEFA, but they have remained remote. So what is the problem?
One Konyak tribe leader in Mon district came out with a unique argument.
When told about the backward tribe tag, he retorted, ?The forward tribes are actually the backward ones. You people are eating up all the money for the backward areas so you are backward. We are the forward ones.?
Well, the huge mansions of politicians in these backward areas show that being forward has been limited to the politicians and has reached the people.
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| Doctors at a tele-consultation |
It is time to take medical consultation to newer levels in Meghalaya. Government doctors in Shillong can now have direct tele-consultations with super-specialists of modern medical institutes of India. The tele-medicine centre of Civil Hospital, Shillong, has opened online interactions with leading doctors of India.
On receiving the time and date for tele-consultation, the concerned doctors come prepared with a detailed case history of the patient, investigation reports and details of treatment and discuss the case with the super-specialists of the referred hospital.
All government doctors in the state have been urged to make use of the unique opportunity for the greater benefit of the patients, who cannot afford to venture out for medical treatment.
