DIMAPUR, June 5 (MExN): With only a couple of days or so left before World Cup kicks off, soccer mania seems to have caught the residents of Dimapur, even those cricket-crazy youngsters. From the remote tribal corners of the state to the densely populated Dimapur, everyone seems to rather Bend It Like Beckham than play a straight drive......
In spite of all the plans and preparation set for the world event, the irregularity in the supply of power, although improved to a considerable level, still seems to be the talk of the town. This very setback has given an impression of anxiety and has created uncertainty in the minds of the people about getting to watch the matches or miss due to the power cuts.
In response, the power department has been initiating campaigns and continuously creating awareness on saving electricity so as to reduce the repeated load shedding during and even after the World Cup in and around the district. The department seems to be positively reacting to the complaints of power failure from the denizens and is leaving no stone unturned for saving power.
The department, after making public few tips on how to contribute in the process of saving power by every household, has shifted its platform to the churches around Dimapur. A leaflet of the upcoming event World Cup 2006 fixtures along with some guidelines for conserving power was distributed today by the Department of Power in almost all the churches. “Taking the advantage of the World Cup, the department wants to create the awareness among each household in cutting down the useless wastage of power” Chief Engineer of the Department said earlier and added, “If the public can cooperate with the department and follow the few instructions that has been laid then even after the big event is over, people can still be left less disturbed by power failure”. The Chief of the Department urged the public to use electricity as one's own commodity and not to brand it as government property which every use in their own manner as they like.
The department through the leaflet distributed earlier this morning to every believer, encouraged the public to use more of Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL) which normally consumes 20% less power besides giving the same brightness of an ordinary electrical bulb. “If one can save some amount of power everyday then it can be stored to be used while in need”, the chief added. At present the state power department is receiving only 50% of the total required power demand from the distributor.
For ages, football has been the most popular game in Nagaland. People of all ages, including women folks, are seen engaging in the sport football and one after another, competitions are being organized by various clubs and organization which are held at local, district and state levels.
Although this hilly terrain was isolated from the rest of the country during the pre-independence days, the captain of the first Indian Olympic team was Dr. T. Ao, a Naga, who played for Mohan Bagan of Kolkata for nine years.
Wearing of the supported-team's jersey by local football fans have increased and they are even donning the hairdos of football stars like Ronaldo, Beckham and Ronaldhino. It has also been noticed that the number of youths going out for football practices during evening hours in the neighborhood have considerably increased.
