North East Rising

India, 29th November: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) used the Pulwama terror attack as an election issue to retain power in 2019 but has done nothing to free the territory China captured in Ladakh six months ago, Lok Sabha member and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee alleged at a huge public rally at his constituency Diamond Harbour on Sunday.

This was his first public meeting in eight months. Taking an aggressive stance, he declared the launch of his election campaign.

“The government has not disclosed how much territory has been occupied by China. In fact, the Prime Minister says there is no such occupation while the Union defence minister claims otherwise. Who is fooling the people? We want China to be given a befitting reply but all Modi has done is ban some Chinese apps. How long do you plan to carry on with this politics with your false patriotism? Will you free this territory before the next election?” said Abhishek Banerjee.

“We want India to give a befitting reply to any country that endangers her sovereignty, be it Pakistan, China, Nepal or Bangladesh. But why is the government silent for six months although China has occupied our territory in Ladakh? Do the lives of our soldiers who died in Galwan have no value?” Abhishek Banerjee questioned BJP.

Recently, Banerjee has been targeted by state and central leaders of the opposition. In his speech, Banerjee dared PM Modi and other BJP leaders to take his name instead of referring to him as bhaipo (nephew in Bengal) or bhatija (nephew in Hindi) in their public speeches.

“At his rally at Diamond Harbour before the last election, Modi said ‘bhatija’ will lose the limelight. I dare Modi and BJP leaders of all ranks to take my name. Neither the Prime Minister nor the others have that courage. Every time they did it, I dragged them to the high court and rubbed their noses on the ground. That’s why they are afraid of taking my name these days,” said Banerjee.

“I am not afraid of taking names. I am boldly saying Amit Shah, Kailash Vijayvargiya, Amit Malviya, Sunil Deodhar and the others are outsiders. I am saying Dilip Ghosh (state BJP president) is a ruffian and a mafia. I am saying Vijayvargiya’s son Akash is a ruffian,” said Banerjee.

Reacting to this, Vijayvargiya said, “Banerjee has been shaken by the raids the income tax department and the Central Bureau of Investigation is carrying out against a coal mafia don close to him. He has lost balance. I don’t want to react to this.”

At the rally, Banerjee attacked the BJP on the issue of development as well.

“We can show with statistics that the TMC government in Bengal has performed much better than the BJP government at the Centre in several fields. I dare the BJP to send any Central minister or any number of leaders to sit for a debate with me on a live television show. I will not show my face if I cannot back our claim with data. Why is your politics based on religion and not development?” said Banerjee.

Talking at length on the development projects of the state government, Banerjee said, “TMC is a party of the people. Mamata Banerjee has made a lot of sacrifices and so have you (the workers). She is the sun. You (the opposition) will burn if you try to touch her,” said Banerjee.

Meghalaya, 29th November: National People’s Party (NPP) has accused the opposition Congress of trying to destabilize the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government by making baseless allegations. The Meghalaya Democratic Alliance government is led by the NPP.

“They (Congress) are trying to destabilize the NPP-led MDA government (by making allegations after allegations) despite the fact that the issues they are raising have already been addressed,” said NPP Spokesman Marcuise N Marak.

The Congress has denied the allegations of Marak and demanded a CBI inquiry into the alleged multi-crore scams in the Meghalaya Power Department.

It alleged there have been many irregularities and anomalies in the implementation of various projects that include the Asian Development Bank (ADB) funded smart metering project, Saubhagya Scheme and Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY), among others.

Leader of Opposition Mukul Sangma of Congress had also alleged corruption in the power department particularly in the implementation of the Saubhagya scheme.

Guwahati, 29th November: Rihon Daimary, Minister of Public Health Engineering Department (PHED), Assam formally inaugurated Skill Development Training centrally under Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), Assam in Guwahati and urged ASDM to support JJM, Assam in achieving the training targets.

JJM, a flagship program of the Government of India aims to provide safe drinking water through Functional Household Tap Connection (FHTC) to every household of the country.

While addressing the people in the inaugural ceremony Rihon purpose, JJM, Assam to continue in collaboration with ASDM to conduct further training on Skill Development.

Under the visionary leadership and direction of Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, JJM, aims to provide safe drinking water to a targeted 63.35 lakhs of the household by 2024. By the end of the financial year (FY) 2020-21, around 13 lakhs FHTCs are targeted to be covered under JJM, Assam.

In the inaugural speech, the Minister expressed that he looks forward to a successful implementation of JJM. He expressed that Skill Development Training for the local youths in different job roles and their further engagement in the implementation of JJM, Assam will pave the way for addressing the unemployment issue in the State.

He also said that JJM, Assam has planned to train 50,000 persons in different job roles.

The program was attended by Adil Khan, Mission Director, JJM & Secretary, PHED; Manin Kr. Das, Chief Engineer, Water, PHED & Addl. MD(T), JJM; Gauri Sankar Sarmah, Addl. MD(NT), JJM; Hanis Noorani, Addl MD, ASDM and representatives of NSDC, Skill India, ASDM Officials, Training Providers, and 60 participants.

Bengal, 29th November: Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee’s new headache goes by the name Prashant Kishore. In the run-up to the 2021 Assembly elections in West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee’s political strategist Prashant Kishor is facing heat from several senior and mid-level Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders for his “inexperience” and “lack of understanding of the politics of Bengal”.

Senior Trinamool leaders and ministers are slowly embarking on a rebellion, but the biggest blow to Mamata is the step down of Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Suvendu Adhikari from the West Bengal cabinet.

So many MLAs are there who are also speaking against the intervention of electoral strategist Prashant Kishore (PK) within the party.

TMC MLA Jatu Lahiri slams Prashant Kishore by saying that PK is the main reason behind all the problems within the party.

“They have been rented at the party. All losses have been started since PK was appointed,” MLA said.

MLA also indicates leaving the party in the upcoming days. Jattu Lahiri indirectly indicated the party to leave in the coming days.

Jatu said, “I have joined the party just because of the Mamata Banerjee. She should run the party on her own.”

While talking about the recent resignation of Shubhendu Adhikari, he said “Shubhendu Adhikari was able to get out of the fascination for the post of minister. There are many problems at the party. We all are sad about this. The common people were not getting the service are the election of Howrah Municipal Corporation is due for the last 2 years. The members associated with PK have forced me to hold several programs but no one has the right to force anyone for any program.”

“I don’t from where they (members associated with PK) are getting so much money,” said TMC MLA Jatu Lahiri.

Adhikari has been a hotshot political property in West Bengal ever since he started a rebellion against his own party. He had begun expressing his disenchantment with TMC with indirect jibes at “apolitical” meetings and rallies.

Mizoram, 28th November: Mizoram will celebrate Christmas and New Year in a low-key manner with the state government extending the ongoing lockdown under the “COVID-19 No Tolerance Drive” till January 10 2021 to prevent further spread of COVID-19.

Mizoram government has also banned all the social gathering other than government function during Christmas and New Year.

Night curfew has been clamped in all district headquarters from 8 pm to 4:30 am.

The drive that began on October 16 after a spike in COVID-19 cases in the state were scheduled to be lifted on November 30.

The government order said that the overall rates of detection of COVID-19 positive cases and local transmission have significantly declined due to the particular drive.

However, the Lengpui Airport along with the inter-state border will continue to open for vehicles carrying commodities and passengers. All shops will also open normally from December 1.

Meanwhile, State education minister, Lalchhandama Ralte said that schools will remain closed in December as COVID-19 is likely to aggravate during the winter.

Although schools are scheduled to open on January 15 next year, the final call will be taken only after taking into consideration the Covid-19 scenario in the state.

The government has also decided to cut down the syllabus for all classes by 30 per cent and instructed the Mizoram Board of School Education (MBSE) to prepare model sample questions for X and XII standard students, who will appear for board examinations next year.

The State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) and MBSE have also been directed to prepare bridge courses for school students.

However, online classes will continue till December 18 for the current year and from January 5 to 14 next year.