Economy / Manipur

IMPHAL, April 27: Admitting that the state government has been virtually reduced to the status of a beggar and has no other alternative but to drastically curtail development works due to the present financial crisis, the Chief minister Radhabinod Koijam today announced that the Government has constituted a resource mobilization committee. Speaking to reporters today after inspecting the Kangchup water supply scheme, which is being taken up with the assistance from French Government with Law and Public Health Engineering Minister O Joy Singh, the Chief Minister said that the resource...

IMPHAL, April 25: Chief Minister Radhabinod Koijam's agenda for austerity measures seems to have conveniently excluded his official bungalow. Despite the fact that the state government is facing acute financial crisis and its employees and pensioners have not been paid their salaries and pensions for the last two and a half months, in addition to the ban imposed by the Reserve Bank of India over all financial transactions of the state government, the recent major renovation works in the CM's bungalow is believed to have cost the state exchequer quite a few millions of rupees. A question has...

IMPHAL, April 20: In order to boost Indo-Myanmar trade, the State authority has urged the Union Minister for Commerce and Industries, Murasoli Maran to provide permission for Indian registered vehicles for its entry into Myanmar territory. The member of the Parliament from this tiny state representing half of the population, Holkhomang Haokip had apprised the matter by submitting an official letter to the Union Commerce minister-recently. Elaborating the steps which are being taken up by the MP in connection with the upgradation of the Indo-Myanmar trade agreement, which was formally signed in...

IMPHAL, April 19: Both factions of the apex body of government employees associations and trade unions, the Joint Administrative Council, JAC (AMGEO and AMTUC) have rejected the government appeal to end their cease work strike, even as disbursement of February and March salaries for the state uniformed services commenced today. Taking strong umbrage at the government decision to restrict arrears only to MR, police, jail and fire service personnel, both JA factions accused the government of discriminating among different groups of employees with the objective of playing divide and rule, and...

IMPHAL, April 16: Fourteen departments in the state today came into grinding halt with the launching of the indefinite cease work strike by a faction of the Joint Administrative Council and All Manipur Government Employees Organization this morning, demanding payment of long overdue salaries and protesting against the suspension of allowances of employees by the state government. The S Narendra led faction of the JAC declared a wildcat indefinite cease work strike effective from today during a press conference yesterday at the State Guest House. All government machineries are likely to come to...

IMPHAL, April 16: Thousands of state government employees under the banner of Joint Action Committee of All Manipur Trade Union Council and All Manipur Government Employees Organisation launched an indefinite ceasework strike from today in protest against the anti-employee policy' of the present ministry. The office work of various state government departments were paralysed following the indefinite ceasework strike which come into force from today. state government offices like planning, family welfare, untrained teachers,' fishery, tribal development, agriculture, horticulture veterinary...

IMPHAL April 12: In what could be described as a death blow to aspiring entrepreneurs of the state, the directorate of commerce and industries has kept frozen a total amount of Rs 64,66,000 deposited by aspiring entrepreneurs for supply of industrial machinery by the directorate. The amount had been collected from altogether 853 applicants towards the end of 2000 in the form of bank drafts for the purpose of supply of various types of industrial machinery, according to informed sources. The machinery which were to be supplied include 600 insulated boxes, 200 rice mills, three pulse mills and...

IMPHAL, April 7: Even though the State Cabinet has agreed to hike power tariff on April 5, no specific decision has been taken regarding the rate of increase till now and the Government has not issued any order in this connection. Highly placed sources said the rate of increase is likely to be from the Rs 2.03 charged per unit by the Electricity Department to Rs 2.80 per unit. However, the Government has not issued any notification on the exact rate of increase. The rate of Rs 2.03 per unit was earlier fixed by the department for domestic, agricultural, industrial and other sectors at an...

IMPHAL, April 6: The taxation department, government of Manipur is hiding more than it has revealed in matter of collection of sale taxes, according to knowledgeable sources. The department which is mainly entrusted with the duty of collecting sales tax has for unexplained reasons, stopped checking cash books and daily sale proceeds at the shops in the Khwairamband Bazar, the hub of commercial activities in the state, according to the sources. Instead, the resort for the last two years or so has been for the department to merely calculate the tax amount from the statements submitted by the...

IMPHAL, April 5: Continuing the series of austerity measures it has initiated to tackle the financial situation, the Radhabinod Koijam decided today to increase power tariff, suspend payment of House Rent Allowance, implement the online lottery scheme, and to set up a state fiscal commission. Revising the Manipur Electricity Supply Annual Regulations 2000, the Cabinet, which met today at 5 pm at the Chief Minister's conference hall, agreed to marginally increase power tariff by 8 paise per unit over the existing rates with effect from June 1 next. The existing power tariff rate is Rs 1.25 per...