New Delhi: In a first, the district unit of a Naga tribal clan has elected a woman as its president. Khrienuo Metha, a retired Nagaland Civil Service (NCS) officer, was on 29 January elected as the president of the ‘Metha Thinuo Krotho, Dimapur’, a traditional body of the Metha clan.
Her appointment is significant considering the Naga traditional society is largely patriarchal and a civil society headed by a woman is nearly unheard of.
Metha told The Morung Express, “We, being such a patriarchal kind of a society, every meeting, every kind of union or village meeting, most meetings, women are not required to be there. Therefore, many meetings we miss out on what is happening with the village issues, clan issues, or those serious matters, we tend to be away from it.”
She is also the first woman NCS officer from the Angami tribe of the state and the first to be appointed as a deputy commissioner in Nagaland in 2009. She retired as commissioner and secretary to the government of Nagaland in 2017.
How a Manipur village became ‘plastic-free’ in 3 years
Saihenjang in Manipur’s Churachandpur district was recently awarded the ‘plastic-free village’ tag by the state government on Republic Day. This achievement, however, came after three years of hard work by its residents to keep insidious plastic waste away.
The residents of Saihenjang have been celebrating World Environment Day since 2012. But it was only in 2018 when they decided to make their tiny village plastic-free.
Saihenjang village chief Henkholun Doungel has been quoted as saying that the village authority had in 2018 decided to make the hamlet plastic-free during the World Environment Day celebrations. Dustbins were installed in front of houses and villagers also took responsibility to collect scattered plastic waste. Each household also has a pit dug up to dispose off daily waste.
25 Naga youths crowdfund repair of highway connecting 4 villages
A 10-kilometre stretch of road that connects four villages in Nagaland — Zhavame, Zelome, Razeba and Tsupfüme — is the only lifeline for about 8,000 people in the area. But the stretch has remained in a deplorable state for several years.
A group of 25 youths from Razeba area under Phek district has now come together to repair the highway with an initiative they call ‘My Road, My Future’.
“You cannot even drive through 10 metres steadily in this stretch and despite the huge potential that Razeba area has, for its agricultural produce, the current condition of the road is in such a state that once the monsoon starts, it will gravely impact the farmers in transporting their vegetables,” Rekha Rose Dukru, who is behind the idea, told The Morung Express.
The state government had earlier declared Zhavame as the ‘vegetable village’ and Tsupfume as ‘ground apple village’ respectively. While talking about how the group plans to crowdfund their initiative, Dukru also said there had been no initiative from the government to repair the road.
Remains of 167-year-old historic Imphal bridge found
The remains of a 167-year-old historic bridge in Manipur’s Imphal were recently found during an excavation. The bridge, situated across the Imphal River, was built without iron bars by the British in 1854, during the reign of Maharaj Chandrakriti.
The bridge existed till 1891 before it was dismantled by the British after the Anglo-Manipur War.
Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh had earlier said that the state government has intimated the Archaeological Survey of India for repair and reconstruction of the bridge. The hump bridge was closed to the public by the government in July 2019 after a portion of it had caved in.
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