Politics / Mizoram

AIZAWL, August 23: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is likely to support the Mizo National Front (MNF)-Mizo People's Conference (MPC) combined joint candidate for the Lok Sabha elections in the state. The party's state president, Harry Vanchhawng, said his party might support the MNF-MPC consensus candidate for the lone Lok Sabha seat, if required, to thwart any attempt by the Congress to come to power at the Centre. He said though a final decision remained with the party central leadership, the state unit was ready to support all forces fighting against the Congress. Vanchhawng said a final...

AIZAWL, August 18: An electoral alliance between the Congress and the Mizo National Front (Nationalist) is in trouble. Efforts by the Pradesh Congress Committee to forge an alliance with the MNF(N) received a setback on Monday when its nomination committee rejected the MNF president's name as the consensus candidate for the forthcoming elections and decided to field a Congressman for the state's lone Lok Sabha seat. According to senior PCC leader, Sainghaka, the chance of an electoral alliance with the MNF(N) had almost gone with the wind as the MPCC nomination committee felt a Congressman...

AIZAWL, August 9: There has been gross misutilisation of funds in the Mizoram election department while conducting the 1998 parliamentary polls, a CAG report has said. It said an excess expenditure of Rs 21.02 lakh was incurred by the department due to mistakes in electoral rolls while copying from computerised master rolls and in the printing of extra copies. Undue financial benefit of Rs 2.24 lakh was also given to a local computer firm which drew the full sanctioned amount of Rs 3.20 lakh but was unable to complete the voters' list till August 1998. The report said none of the electronic...

AIZAWL, August 4: The Mizoram law department has referred the Mizoram Salaries and Allowances and Pension of Members of the Legislative Assembly (Amendment) Bill, 1999, to the Chief Election Commissioner as it could violate the moral code of conduct laid down by the Election Commission. The Bill was introduced in the state Assembly on Wednesday. According to state chief electoral officer L Tochawng, Governor A Padmanaban had asked the state election commission to clarify whether the Bill could be introduced and later implemented before the Lok Sabha elections. A senior official of the law...

NEW DELHI, July 27: The Delhi High Court has asked the Union home ministry to explain its stand on the inclusion of Mizoram migrants staying in the capital in the electoral list for the Lok Sabha elections to be held in September. A division bench comprising Chief Justice SN Variava and justice SK Mahajan directed the central government's standing counsel Maninder Singh to state the ministry's stand on the inclusion of Mizo migrants as voters in the capital before adjourning the matter till August 27. The bench was hearing a petition filed by Akhil Bharatiya Vanvasi Kalyan Sangh seeking...

UNDATED, July 24: Zoramthanga, the chief minister of Mizoram, has said that the Mizoram government is not pushing back any Burmese pro-democracy activist to Burma. "We welcome them ... . We are not pushing those Burmese democracy activists at all. The people we pushed (back) are smugglers", Zoramthanga said on July 23 when asked to comment on a reported statement of the Mizoram home minister on the deportation of Burmese nationals from the state. According to a PTI report, Tawnluia, the state home minister had told the state Assembly on July 20 that the Mizoram government had deported 448...

AIZAWL, July 21 - Mizoram Government has identified and deported 448 Myanmarese nationals between December 1998 and June 1999, Home Minister Tawnluia told the State Assembly yesterday. Replying to supplementaries, Tawnluia said the State Government has taken up the village registration programme to verify the identity of each settler in the State and those found to be foreigners residing illegally would be tried and deported. He said the State Government has approached the Centre for formation of second battalion of Indian Reserve Police and one battalion of Prevention of Infiltration Force...

Aizawl, July 16: The Mizoram Assembly Speaker R Lalawia on Friday adjourned the House as Opposition Congress legislators disallowed proceedings after Question Hour. Trouble began when Opposition leader Zakhu Hlychho asked the Speaker to give him a satisfactory reply as to why his resolution proposing donation of one month's salary of all ministers and legislators for the Kargil jawans' fund had been rejected. Pandemonium prevailed when the Speaker's contention that the Legislature cannot fix the amount to be paid by anybody could not satisfy Hlychho who insisted that his resolution was...

New Delhi, July 12: The Supreme Court on Monday gave six weeks time to the Centre and the governments of West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura to file affidavits on a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking repatriation of over one crore Bangladeshi migrants illegally staying in India. A three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice AS Anand, justice M Jagannadha Rao and justice Santosh N Hedge, while giving the time, observed that matter was of serious nature and the States and the Centre should not delay it further. The PIL filed by All India Lawyers Forum for Civil Liberties...