Imphal temporary market construction stopped by BJP leader
Imphal, January 16 (IANS): Following the destruction caused by the January 4 earthquake, the construction of a temporary women's market in the Manipur capital was suspended on Saturday at the behest of BJP legislator Khumukcham Joykishan who said no tender was floated for the construction and no work order was issued. Following the halt in the construction work in the legislator's constituency, hundreds of angry women vendors stormed his house to demand an alternative market for them since they have been out of business since the earthquake damaged two women's market complexes. The BJP's state unit has been demanding demolition of the two market complexes saying they pose a threat to the women vendors. The BJP's state unit president Thounaojam Chaoba demanded a CBI inquiry into the "substandard construction" done five years ago. "Buildings and market centres built 50 years ago could withstand the earthquake but not these complexes," he said, demanding construction of new markets. The displaced women vendors have been selling various items by the roadside, much to the resentment of the street vendors. Sensing violent confrontations between the two groups, the government hurried with the temporary construction in the Thangal market. However, on Saturday, legislator Joykishan asked the contractor to stop work since no tender for the construction was floated and no work order was issued. "The chief minister should have some respect for the people and should not run the state whimsically," he said. On the explanation of the engineers that it was "emergency work", he said: "The construction of a market complex to lodge over 2,000 vendors is not an emergency work." Heavily armed policemen were patrolling the area to maintain law and order. Shakhitombi, a woman vendor, told IANS that the BJP lawmaker should provide an alternative site. Though the women protested at his house for a long time, he refused to come out and talk with them.
GNLA militant killed in encounter
Shillong, January 16 (PTI): A Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) militant, wanted for kidnapping a block development officer last year, was today killed in an encounter with the security forces in Meghalaya's East Garo Hills district, police said. Acting on intelligence inputs, Swift Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) commandos of the state police raided a makeshift camp of GNLA. As the commandos approached the camp they were fired upon, police said. In retaliatory fire, one of the militants who was in the camp was shot dead and another got shot in his arms. The deceased has been identified as Kandem, known to be an expert in assembling IEDs, IG (Operations) G H P Raju said. A shot gun was recovered from the site of the encounter and an operation is on to find his aide, identified as Chondro, and sanitise the area, he said. Kandem is suspected to have engineered the IED attack at a busy market in Williamnagar last week, the officer said. He was also responsible for the kidnapping of Jude Rangku T Sangma, a BDO in South Garo Hills' Chokpot last October and the most wanted armed cadre of the outfit, Raju said. The GNLA, formed in 2010, has been active in all five Garo Hills districts and named in various cases of kidnapping, extortion and killing.
Over 8,000 birds being culled in Tripura over bird flu
Agartala, January 16 (IANS): With a fresh outbreak of bird flu being reported in Tripura, the mass culling of more than 8,000 chicken and ducks began on Saturday in the western part of the state, officials said here. "We have started culling of chickens, ducks and other poultry birds today (Saturday) at the government-run animal farm at Gandhigram in western Tripura. We have told officials to complete the culling drive at the R.K. Nagar government animal farm at the earliest," Tripura government's animal resource development department (ARDD) director Manoranjan Sarkar told IANS. He said: "The National Institute of High Security Animal Disease Laboratory in Bhopal has confirmed the samples from the government farm are positive for H5 strain of Avian Influenza." "It has been decided to immediately commence the culling of birds and destruction of eggs and feed material among other things so as to control further spread of the disease without loss of time," said Sarkar, who is personally supervising the culling of birds. In addition to the culling, surveillance would be carried out over a further radius up to 10 km to monitor further spread of infection, if any.
