US SHAM UNIVERSITIES AND RADIO-COLLARING

The message is loud and clear, the US government is trying to intercept and shut down “sham Universities” to avoid relay of last year’s unpleasant radio-collaring episode of Indian students.

Director US Consulate General, Kolkata, Chad P Cummins speaking to the Assam Tribune said today the US government considers such bogus Universities and schools as a “huge problem” and investigation is on to weed them out.

Last September, several Indian students fell prey to a sham University called Tri-Valley in US, California. Some of the students who enrolled in the University were later radio-tagged to monitor their movement by US immigration officials. That led to an uproar in India.

Post the radio-collaring incident, the US government is taking a closer look at some of its policy loopholes to avoid recurrence of “unsuspecting” students being victimised by sham Universities.

One of the tricky issues being looked into is about US Universities and schools having the right to enrol foreign students without being necessarily accredited.

Taking advantage of this loophole in the policy, several sham Universities mushroomed and acted as fronts to run immigration rackets.

In fact, after the 9/11 attack, the US has increased its surveillance on foreign students because some of the terrorists who rammed into the twin towers were aviation students in the US.

The Consular official was here to interact with students of St. Anthony’s college and encourage them to enrol in US Universities. He said during the interaction that students must get in touch with US consulates in the country for better information of schools and Universities to avoid being victims of fraud.

Cummins also advised students to go through the Immigration and Customs Enforcement department’s Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) to get better insight into US schools and Universities. SEVIS has a list of approved schools and Universities.

The US government is also directing all Universities and schools to provide clear details about its accreditation status, alumnae and the courses offered under the new policy being worked out.

“There are a few wrinkles in the policy that needs to be ironed out and once that is done it would benefit foreign students,” Cummins added.

MEGH WARRANT OF PRECEDENCE, MLAs WAY ABOVE TEACHERS

Legislators are listed fourth in the warrant of precedence in Meghalaya, India and comparing Members of Legislative Assembly with teachers is like differentiating between potatoes and apples.

Independent legislator Manas Chaudhuri making a comparison between teachers and public representatives in the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly, said: “people ask me, 'when teachers don’t get pension, why should MLAs get.' I tell them because the difference between the two is like potatoes and apples.”

He said MLAs’ position was much higher than teachers as they are listed number four in the warrant of precedence after the Governor, Speaker, Chief Minister, Council of Ministers in the state.

Warrant of precedence is the list of protocol through which individuals and organisations are assigned their position as per their importance by the government.

Chaudhuri, who was education minister in the previous NCP-led MPA government, came up with the comparison during introduction of the Legislative Assembly of Meghalaya (Members’ Pension) (Amendment) Bill, 2011.

He was demanding higher pension amount for ex-MLAs and said the Rs. 10,000 monthly pension and Rs. 3000 medical allowance was demeaning for the stature of MLAs who are public representatives.

The Mawprem legislator demanded that through further amendments in the Bill the pension slab for ex-MLAs must be fixed at Rs. 20,000 and Rs. 5000 for medical allowance.

Deputy Chief Minister in-charge Parliamentary Affairs, Rowell Lyngdoh rejected Chaudhuri’s suggestion stating the new Bill has raised the pension amount from Rs. 5000 to Rs. 10,000 which was a 100 per cent increase. Moreover, the medical allowance was increased from Rs. 750 to Rs. 3000.

He said the decision to raise the pension slab was taken by the Cabinet based on the recommendation of a cabinet sub-committee. “The present pension of ex-MLAs is considered adequate and cannot be raised further,” Lyngdoh said.

Chaudhuri further pointed out the basic pay of sitting MLAs is Rs. 5000 and therefore the pension of MLAs cannot be more than the basic pay of sitting MLAs and insisted the Bill must be corrected.

Chief Minister Mukul Sangma then intervened and said if required the basic pay of sitting MLAs would be rectified to avoid anomalies, but not the pension amount of ex-MLAs. The Bill was later introduced and passed by the House.

ONLY THE DIVINE AUTHORITY CAN COUNT THE LIVING AND THE DEAD

Refugees, illegal migrants, foreigners and of course Indians would form part of census 2011 that would populate the mystical and diversified country called India, but not the fabled “Indian Babylonians" of Mizoram!

Considering themselves as children of God the Babylonians have refused to enumerate themselves in the current census operations, much to the disappointment of the Indian government.

Living in a world of complete isolation and mystery the Babylonians are a secretive sect, living in some districts of Mizoram, with the belief that they have nothing to do with the “outside” world.

The sectarian group has shut their doors to the outside world and would not allow “others” to come to their homes in times of wedding or funerals or any other social events. They have even stopped sending their children to schools, so that they are not influenced by the outside world.

The reason to abstain from the current census according to the Babylonians is simple: “only the divine authority has the right to count the living and the dead. Not humans.”

“These are non-believers,” a rather piqued Pu Lal Thanhawala the Chief Minister of Christian majority state of Mizoram said after the Babylonians refused to enumerate themselves in the current census operations.


Secretary of North East Christian Council, Reverend R Lalnunzira, however, disagrees. “Babylonians are Christians and the Church have always wanted them to return into the mainstream, but it has been difficult convincing them as they do not want communication with the outside world,” the Church leader said.

The Babylonians are somewhat similar to the Mennonites and Amish people of North America. The Mennonites and Amish too do not communicate with the outside world and have even shunned modern technology and prefer living a lifestyle much as the way people lived in the Biblical era.

The Mizoram Chief Minister emphasising the importance of the census operations said, the government wants to head count those who are living in Mizoram similar to the rest of the country.

“If they (Babylonians) don’t say about their numbers it leaves a small, but, significant blank in our efforts to formulate welfare schemes for the entire population of Mizoram.” But, so far all efforts of the Mizoram government have been futile to convince the Babylonians to be part of the census.

The 2011 census would definitely throw many surprises in the coming days, but the missing “Babylonian” population is much on expected lines and shall remain as fabled as they were for centuries.

FOX IN THE CHICKEN COOP:MEGHALAYA

Heard about the proverbial “fox in the chicken coop,” but never: “Speaker vacated the residence in May 2008; there was no trace of the Rs. 11.81 lakh-poultry coop!”

Sounds bizarre, but its true. The Assembly secretariat incurred a loss of Rs. 11.81 lakh due to submission of a “fictitious bill” for construction of a poultry coop at the official residence of former speaker, MM Dangoo.

But, what takes the cake is that when the speaker vacated his official residence neither the coop nor a single chicken was present at the residence!

“Approval of such construction (poultry coop) at the official residence (speaker) from the public money was not only unethical but also unauthorised,” the Comptroller and Auditor General’s report castigated.

This is not the first instance that the CAG has unearthed financial mismanagement during Dangoo’s tenure as a Speaker of the legislative assembly.

Dangoo did not hand over goods installed in his residence before vacating his official residence in May 2008.

Included in the list of items were: two Sony LCD TV 50 inch worth Rs 7,87,500, one set of PIV Lenovo worth Rs 1,40,712, one air conditioner worth Rs 1,92,440, three wall fan worth Rs 23,400.

A cycling machine, tread mill, weight machine, pixna, TFT monitor, revolving chair (one each) were also purchased by the then speaker.

Moreover, two dining tables worth Rs 1,03,500 a 2857.14 sq m of carpet worth an amazing Rs 23 lakh were purchased .

Security-related items such as CCTV, additional cameras, intercom PABX valued at Rs 1.94 crore were also not returned. In all goods worth crores of rupees were missing after Dangoo vacated his official residence.

Meanwhile, the poultry coop’s construction was done by a contractor without “detailed plan, estimates, administrative approval and technical sanction.” Besides, no tender was called to assess competitive rates, the CAG report said.

Non-existence of the poultry coop indicates a fraudulent payment of Rs. 11.81 lakh has been made on fictitious bill – now that’s making mincemeat of public money.

HAMARA PAISA HAMARA HAQ

Going with its slogan: “ our money our right,” the Shillong declaration of the 3rd National Right to Information Convention today resolved that the central government must subject “all public expenditure under social audit.”

It was by far one of the most crucial of the other 11 resolutions passed in the Shillong Declaration and was only included after the strong insistence of RTI activist, Aruna Roy. She was amply supported by some of the country’s prominent figures in the field of judiciary, media and bureaucracy.

Initially, it was decided that just ten resolutions would be passed and those were read out and adopted. But Roy in the end intervened and strongly advocated that the social audit of all public expenditure must be included in the list of resolutions.

“It is important, we are here to fight corruption...If the government can have social auditing in the case of NREGA then why not for all other programmes,” she reasoned. Eventually, the resolution was adopted.

Apart from, the social audit, some other very crucial resolutions were passed having direct bearing on the northeast.

One of them being security and intelligence forces must not be exempted from scrutiny under section 24 of the RTI Act and this exemption must be removed immediately so that these agencies fall directly under the purview of RTI.

“It is irrational to exempt security and intelligence agencies under section 24 of the Act. This is not in the interest of national security,” said the speaker while announcing the resolutions.

Another vital piece of resolution was that there must be transparency in religious institutions and they must also be transparent about the manner they use “public money.”

It goes without saying that many religious institutions have kept their accounts under a strict code of secrecy and many feel they are not used for the purpose they were meant for, hence the resolution.

The other important resolution includes bringing banks, international financial agencies, private sectors, NGOs under the RTI. The resolution also said all Private-Public-Partnership and Public-Private projects must be brought under the Act.

Some of the other resolutions included setting up of a Right to Information Council to better implement the Act, circulation of draft legislations for wider consultations, transparency in the appointment of State and Central Information Commissioners, protection of RTI applicants and activists.

Besides, creation of anti-corruption commission like Lokpal, Autonomous Councils under RTI and suo moto disclosure of government schemes and programmes were the other resolutions adopted after the three days of deliberations.

INDIA A SHAM DEMOCRACY RULED BY ELITES

India is a “nominal democracy” with “political families and a few elite” continuing to rule the nation since its independence, unfairly.

Former Chief Election Commissioner, James Michael Lyngdoh who is in Shillong to attend the national convention on Right To Information said, five percent elite and political families are ruling the nation since the country’s independence and he therefore considers India a sham democracy.

“To say that elections in the country are conducted free and fair is absolutely laughable,” the outspoken Lyngdoh said, who himself took many powerful politicians to task for grossly violating the election process, during his tenure as CEC.

He said “rich candidates and people connected with political families” almost always have their way out in dictating the terms of the elections in India.

Unless, he said, the five percent elite and political families are held accountable to make way for an equalitarian society, India cannot remotely consider itself a democracy. “I cannot think of a democracy without competition,” he said.

Lyngdoh was pessimistic when asked if India would soon witness an outburst like the Arab world: “I don’t see it happening for a long time now.”

He blamed the present caste system in India as a road-block for an uprising like Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and other nations.

“The caste system is like an extended family. They take refuge in each other for security, because politicians have kept them helpless over the years. Unless they get an alternative this would continue and India would remain divided,” he cited.

The Ramon Magsaysay award winner said disparity in resource sharing and social equilibrium can be restored somewhat through writ petitions, public hearings and social networking.

Strongly advocating the adoption of the Whistleblowers’ Act, he said, India must take the cue from the United States and enact the Act immediately.

“10 to 12 whistleblowers were killed in India. Like the US the whistleblowers must be provided safe houses and maintenance and in the event of their death, take responsibility of their families,” he suggested.

Terming the Right to Information Act as “symbolic,” he nonetheless said: “willy-nilly we have to deal with the Act.”