New Delhi: The Nagaland government has asked all its officials and employees to declare if their family members or relatives are in any “Naga underground organisation”.
Employees are required to give names of family members who are members of an underground group, the nature of relationship with them, name of the organisation to which she or he belongs and the position the person holds in that outfit.
“Family members shall consist of spouse, sons/daughters, siblings and parents of the government employee. Relatives shall consist of anyone who is directly related to any of the family members of the government employee,” the self declaration form states.
The memorandum was issued by the state chief secretary on 7 July, in which heads of all administrative departments have been asked to obtain information from all government employees in self-declared forms.
The document, that is marked ‘confidential’, surfaced on WhatsApp on 9 July and has since been doing the rounds.
According to a report, while similar exercises were done discreetly in the past, without the government employees themselves knowing that their background checks are being done, this is the first time that an order for self-declaration is being issued.
Also read: Mizoram, Manipur are using this traditional practice to keep coronavirus in check
Man swims across river from Sikkim to Darjeeling & back using a rubber tube
The Sikkim Police has booked a man under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, for allegedly violating Covid-19 norms by swimming across the Rangit river in South Sikkim and crossing over to Singla in neighbouring Darjeeling.
An employee of the BSNL telephone exchange in Gangtok’s Ranipool, the man had gone to his native place in Singla in the second week of June by swimming across the river using a rubber tube. He allegedly paid Rs 100 to a local youth from Sikkim for help.
He then re-entered Sikkim on 6 July in the same manner and reported for duty. The man is now lodged at a quarantine centre in Sikkim’s Saramsa.
Duo from Arunachal hike all the way into Tibet, video goes viral
A video, which has been widely shared online, shows two men in Arunachal Pradesh hike their way up to the Tibet Autonomous Region via the India-China border.
One of them has been identified as Techi Hemi from Arunachal Pradesh’s Hemi, the last village in Mechuka district near China, reports EastMojo.
In the clip, the place behind Techi is Nyingchi, also known as Linzhi, a city in Southeast Tibet. Part of Nyingchi, which is Mechuka in Arunachal Pradesh, is controlled by India.
The river seen in the video is Yarlung Tsangpo, which is known as Brahmaputra in India.
Eastern Arunachal MP Tapir Gao has been quoted as saying that the Monigong area, where Hemi village is located, is inhabited by the Bokars, a sub-tribe of Adi.
“Not only these two individuals, but most of the villagers visit that side of China (shown in the video) because Bokars also live there. It takes two or three days to reach this place as only one mountain is in between Indian Bokar village and Chinese Bokar village,” he said.
Also read: Meghalaya’s Mawsynram could lose wettest-on-Earth status to this place in Indonesia
Smoked pork, axone for quarantined inmates on festival day
To mark Tuluni, a festival celebrated by the Sumi Naga tribes, a quarantine centre in Nagaland’s Chümoukedima decided to prepare a special dinner earlier this week.
Inmates at this all-female facility in Chümoukedima’s New DC Complex were served smoked pork and axone, a traditional dish of the Sumi Nagas. For those who didn’t eat pork, there was chicken.
A caterer running the mess at the facility was quoted as saying: “Our heart goes out to those returnees who will be dearly missing their family members, friends and home during festival time.”
Touched with this gesture, many of the inmates had reached out to the healthcare workers with appreciation messages and social media posts. Terhuja, a returnee from Delhi, said it made her feel as if she was home, “sharing the love of the festival”.
Mizoram pastor redesigns car to give free rides to Covid suspects
A 46-year-old pastor of a Baptist church in Mizoram’s Lunglei district has redesigned his car, with a single seat in front for the driver, to ferry Covid-19 suspects home after completion of their quarantine period.
Israel Lalremtluanga has been driving people home for free in his own car for the past four months. He has put polythene and plastic barriers in between the front and back seats of his car to maintain social distancing.
“I started ferrying people from March after the Mizoram citizens started returning to their homes from different parts of the country. I learnt people were facing great difficulties in returning to their villages and homes even after they completed their 14 or 21-day quarantine period or came out negative for coronavirus.
“Social prejudice came in their way. Even after recovering from the disease or completing the quarantine period, they were not getting public transport or were made to pay up Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,000 to return to their homes in vehicles laden with goods,” Lalremtluanga was quoted as saying.
Also read: From deputy police commissioner to zilla parishad CEO, this Assam district is run by women