UDP and KHNAM have responded positively to MDP president Martle Mukhim's recent proposal of "a regionalism theory" to bring all regional parties under one umbrella to upset the applecart of all national parties, including Congress and NCP, in the ensuing State Assembly polls.

Mr Mukhim said the executive committee meeting of MDP held on Saturday decided to ask its workers to extend support to candidates of other regional parties in constituencies where MDP has not put up any candidate.

"There is a need for consensus candidates in constituencies where MDP or other regional parties have not set up their candidates," the MDP chief said, adding, "We should strengthen regionalism with national outlook. Only regional parties understand the problems of local people better."

Talking to The Shillong Times on Sunday, UDP spokesperson and candidate from Malki-Nongthymmai constituency, BM Lanong welcomed the MDP decision to support candidates of other regional parties.

"We welcome the MDP decision. It is a good decision of MDP," Mr Lanong said.

KHNAM president Paul Lyngdoh also sounded optimistic about the MDP move for unity among regional parties.

It may be noted here that an attempt has been on for the last few years to bring all regional parties under one platform. Personal idiosyncrasies among MLAs of most of the regional parties have, however, stood in the way of this move.

For quite some time, Mr Mukhim has been asking UDP and other parties to come forward for unification of all regional parties or revival of the erstwhile Regional Progressive Alliance (RPA) ahead of the elections. MDP and UDP were also engaged in a spat over the unification move, blaming each other for failing to revive RPA.

But with the latest interest shown by some key regional party leaders in the proposal put forward by Mr Mukhim, it appears that there is a possibility of unity and understanding among regional parties.

MDP has already released a list of 19 candidates for the March-3 elections, besides its poll manifesto highlighting a 25-point programme for development of the State and its people.

In the last election, MDP had won four seats. The party recently suffered a setback when two of its four MLAs joined UDP and another switched allegiance to Congress.

The MDP president, however, was unperturbed by the vacuum created by the loss of three of his party MLAs and went on campaigning for unification of regional parties.

SHILLONG: UDP has pulled out of the ruling United Democratic Alliance (UDA) in KHADC in protest against recent election of "juniormost and inexperienced" Cleophas B Syiem as new Council CEM.

UDA came into existence after former CEM HS Shylla had managed to convince MDCs from UDP and KHNAM to form the alliance. UDP MDC HL Massar, however, refused to be part of the coalition as he was totally against the style of functioning of Mr Shylla.

In the 30-member House, UDP has six members and KHNAM has two.

UDP leader Bindo M Lanong on Sunday said his party would not accept "juniormost" member Cleophas B Syiem as CEM "who was elected to the post despite the presence of many senior MDCs."

Mr Lanong said UDP believed that being an inexperienced person Mr Syiem would not be able to lead the Council, adding, "We have taken this decision to quit UDA as we do not want to shoulder responsibility for any blunder in future."

"The election of Mr Syiem is a political ploy of Chief Minister DD Lapang to give momentum to his election campaign," the UDP leader said.

Shillong: In what can be termed as a security lapse on the part of the BSF, over 50 suspected Bangladeshi nationals, armed with sharp weapons, ransacked the house of one Jobel Malngiang, owner of an orchard at Lumjyrmi village near Bholaganj, on Friday afternoon.

Police said the suspected Bangladeshi did not utter a word when they entered the house and started assaulting the male members of the family. One member Bosten Nongbri was stabbed to death in the melee. Besides, the Bangladeshis also took away valuable equipment including cash.

They escaped to Bangladesh soon after committing the crime, police said.

Meanwhile, a police source expressed surprise that the BSF did not detect entry of such large number of Bangladeshis into the Indian territory. "It is even more shocking that the intruders could easily give the BSF a slip even after committing the crime," the source said.

According to KDCASA president, Philander Lyngdoh the association had made several pleas to the Government and the concerned department to release their bills, but to no avail.

As the Government failed to response to our demands, we decided to file a petition against the PWD Department in Jaintia Hills.

Earlier, the association had served a pleader notice to the head of the Department in the District.

The bills include for reconstruction work of roads, construction of new roads and repairing of various roads in Jaintia Hills district.

JOWAI: UDP candidate from Sutnga constituency Rechard Sing Lyngdoh is in trouble for allegedly issuing threat of "dire consequences" to Sutnga villagers if they do not vote for him in the coming elections and also for assaulting some participants of a village dorbar meeting.

In an FIR filed with police, as many as 71 residents of Sutnga village alleged that Mr Lyngdoh and his supporters were "forcing people" to cast their vote in favour of the UDP candidate. The Sutnga villagers said the UDP candidate warned them of dire consequences in case they did not vote for him in the elections.

Mr Lyngdoh and his brother Self Daniel Lyngdoh have also been accused of physically assaulting one Jasban Chyrmang and a few others during a meeting convened by the village dorbar on Saturday morning.

According to Mr Chyrmang, members of the dorbar announced the general meeting the previous evening. Mr Chyrmang and some other residents of the village wanted to know why the meeting was convened without prior information.

When the headman explained the urgency of the meeting, a group of youths, who were allegedly in an inebriated condition, started to shout at them leading to the assault incident. Later, UDP Candidate Mr Lyngdoh, along with his brother, picked on Mr Chyrmang and assaulted him.

According to police, the body was sent to Shillong Civil Hospital for post-mortem.

No words are too strong to condemn the ghoulish and barbaric kidney transplantation racket in the National Capital Region, with its frightening scale, brazen violence against the victims, and ramifications across several states, if not nations. Dr Amit Kumar alias Santosh Raut’s massive organ trade operation involved 3 hospitals, 5 diagnostic centres and 10 laboratories, and more than 50 accomplices, including doctors and nurses, "spotters" and touts who would lure hundreds of potential donors with the promise of jobs, and thugs and gunmen who would force them to part with their kidneys.

The racket was unearthed thanks to the initiative of an earnest young woman police officer, Manjul Saini. But it’s inconceivable that it could have carried on for years across Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi without collusion on the part of the police. Its mastermind was repeatedly arrested and detained since 1993, including in 2000 in Delhi. The Haryana police could not have been unaware of his activities.

There’s strong evidence that Raut was tipped off so as to evade arrest. This only strengthens the inference about police collusion, as does the fact that two Greek nationals in contact with the Raut circuit were allowed to leave India without interrogation.

What demarcates the Raut operation from the illicit kidney trade which flourishes in many Indian cities is the use of muscle power against the donors. Typically, it’s extreme economic distress that compels poor people to sell their body parts. But Raut’s goons would reportedly drug their dirt-poor victims or beat them into agreeing to a surgical excision of their kidneys.

Besides adding to the Raut gang’s culpability, this highlights the gravity of the comprehensive police failure in enforcing the law, in particular, the Transplantation of Human Organs Act (THOA) 1994, which illegalises the sale of human organs and giving and accepting a reward for their donation. The Act allows organ donations by close relatives without government clearance. But all other relatives wish to donate must appear before and be cleared by an expert Authorisation Committee.

THOA however has a big loophole. It dispenses with prior approval of the Committee if the donor feels "affection" or "attachment towards the recipient". This is so vague as to permit extensive mercantile abuse on a potential donor’s unverifiable declaration. Most organ trade racketeers simply ignore or defy the law, as Raut did. Since the entire operation is illegal and clandestine, they don’t even bother to use the THOA loophole.

The Raut racket follows a familiar pattern, noted in Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad to Mumbai and Delhi all the way to Chandigarh and Amritsar. Rich clients suffering from end-stage renal disease, many of them foreigners, are contacted by and drawn into an international organ trade network at the centre of which are unscrupulous doctors who prey upon the very poor, who are often in deep debt. These potential donors are misled into believing they’ll get jobs and eventually induced into selling a kidney for as little as Rs 40,000 to a maximum of Rs 1 lakh.

The international kidney bazaar is highly evolved, with extensive cross-border transactions and a hierarchy of preferences and prices. Thus, kidneys from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh or the Philippines sell for as little as $1,000 to 2,000. A Romanian kidney goes for $3,000. A kidney from Turkey costs $10,000 or more. Mexico, Brazil and South Africa fall in between. The victims are always desperately poor people who have lost everything, including hope.

In country after Third World country, the donors’ consent is typically secured through coercion or under extremely exploitative and unequal conditions. It cannot be remotely termed free or informed—regardless of the level of literacy.

The donors are usually quickly discharged and left to fend for themselves without being warned of possible risks and hazards from their surgery. There’s no follow-up treatment nor an attempt to monitor if they themselves need dialysis in case their remaining kidney malfunctions in the future. Many donors end up ill and destitute—as soon as they have run through the money or partially repaid their debt.

Many poor countries have no laws to regulate organ trade. In India's case, the law came years after the legal kidney transplants had become an established business. In any case, the police have comprehensively failed to enforce THOA.

On a good guess, a major reason for this failure, apart from large bribes paid to ensure its silence, is the belief that the victims got a modicum of "justice" because they were "compensated" to the extent of Rs 40,000 to 100,000 for the removal of a kidney, and that they can, after all, survive with just one kidney. The only "injustice", many of our law-enforcers believe, is that of disproportion: the racketeering doctors, middlemen, touts and brokers make much larger sums, totalling Rs 15 to 20 lakh.

This belief, probably shared by a section of the Indian elite—which, for instance, finds nothing wrong in the use of child labour—betrays utter contempt for human life and the principle of inviolability of the human body, which is foundational to any civilised society. It justifies the invasion and raiding of flesh-and-blood people to steal their vital organs, which don't regenerate themselves.

This view places an abysmally low value on the bodies of desperately poor and vulnerable people. This should be repugnant to anyone with the slightest conscience or elementary faith in human solidarity or an essential bond or social compact among people regardless of their social rank or status. The whole idea that you can cannibalise the bodies of the underprivileged is utterly unacceptable.

The injustice of disproportion is secondary in character. Even if all the middlemen and brokers were eliminated, it would still be immoral and unconscionable that medical science should be used to rob the poor of their organs so that the rich can have them. The ethics of treating human organs like inanimate commodities remains extremely troubling, especially when there’s a huge disproportion between the power of recipient and donor. That's why those who advocate "market-based solutions" to the problem of end-stage renal disease are profoundly mistaken.

True, there's a big gap between the numbers affected thus, estimated at 1.5 lakh in India, and the number of kidneys transplanted (under 4,000). Another 6,000 get dialysis. The rest just perish. But that gap can't be filled by exploiting poor. Rather, what we need is more and cheaper dialysis facilities, cadaver-based transplants (from the brain dead), and encouragement to patients’ relatives to donate their kidneys. Kidney donations have few adverse effects if properly managed with follow-up, etc. The public must be educated to make kidney donation pledges much in the way cornea donation campaigns appeal to them.

Cadaver-based transplants are the most important and ethically the least problematic option. More than 10 brain deaths occur in each of our major cities every day. Yet there have been only 500 cadaver-based transplants since THOA came into being. But to bring the option into being, we need to simplify and speed up cumbersome medico-legal procedures for organ donation, create transplant registries, and permit round-the-clock post-mortem examinations, besides raising public awareness.

Unfortunately, the government seems to be moving towards easing organ transplant norms by diluting THOA and creating a system of "incentives" and allowing "organ-swapping" between willing but incompatible donors. This may be open to abuse.

Meanwhile, the problem of preventing rackets of the Raut kind cannot be ducked. The inhuman practice of violating the bodies of the destitute and ultra-vulnerable people must be firmly put down and severely punished. This must provoke serious and critical reflection on the neoliberal economic policies we are pursuing, under which growth aggravates destitution at the bottom of the social pyramid. It must also trigger genuine police reform.

Equally important, we need to re-educate medical professionals on issues of medical ethics and social responsibility. The medical profession has long been complicit in all kinds of malpractices. Indeed, the phenomenon of "27 million missing women" through female foeticide wouldn’t have occurred without the profession’s active involvement in sex determination and abortion. It’s a shame that the state to has been indulgent towards the culprits in this ghastly and shameful form of gendered violence. So a laughable 66 cases have been registered against doctors for sex selection in all these years.

Yet, there is a smart and reliable way of detecting and zeroing on clandestine organ transplants. All their recipients are given immuno-suppressant drugs to prevent transplant rejection, such as cyclosporin, tacrolimus and mycophenolate. These are only made by a handful of companies like Roche, Novartis and Panacea, which know exactly which hospitals/clinics order them. The likes of Raut’s Palam Vihar hospital can be easily tracked down and raided. Will the government muster the will to do this?(IPA Service)

Sir,

The Constitution of our country embraces all its citizens within its fold - it is inclusive in nature. Every citizen, small or big, high or low, majority or minority, is within the purview of the Constitution. In a democratic set up under such a Constitution, the majority community, which enjoys the political power, protects and upholds the rights and privileges of the minority. It is naturally expected that in Meghalaya also the majority community who are enjoying the political power should protect the interest of all sections of people, including the minority community, as assumed by the Hill State leadership during the struggle for the separate State. It is obvious that without active support and goodwill of the majority community, the minority cannot enjoy the fundamental rights as enshrined in the Constitution.

The ensuing Assembly elections in Meghalaya will give the electorate an opportunity to ventilate or project their grievances and difficulties before the political leadership of the State with a hope that these will be attended to and duly redressed when voted to power.

As I see it, the problems faced by the urban and rural people are different so also the problems faced by the majority and minority communities of the State. The problems of health, education, sanitation, shortage of power, unemployment, lack of irrigation facilities and shortage of drinking water in the villages are some of the problems faced by almost every citizen of the State. The ban on transfer of land, difficulties on employment and procuring trading licenses, shrinkage in the scope of higher studies are some of the major problems faced by the minority community of the State.

Most of the problems can be solved within the framework of the Constitution to the satisfaction of all through meaningful dialogue if and when the genesis of the problems faced by the minority community are properly appreciated by the minority community and projected/represented in proper prospective before the majority leadership. The continuous meaningful dialogue between both the communities will have other ramification also. Such dialogues will bridge the gap between the communities and break the shackles of isolation which the communities are suffering from. It is expected that initiative of such a composite dialogue should come from the majority community. The principal regional party, UDP, initiated such a move on November 30 last and held a meeting with minority representatives of Shillong at the official residence of Deputy Chief Minister Dr Donkupar Roy, who happens to be the president of the party, to acquaint themselves with the problems faced by the minority community.

If such an exercise is meant to bear fruits, not just remains as another pre-poll rhetoric, then it is essential that the dialogue is carried forward. It is expected that the other national and regional political parties of the State will follow the suit, and try to gauge the real problem faced by the minority groups of the State.

In such a scenario it is of utmost importance, especially for the minority groups, to elect their representatives for next five years not only in the General Seats, but also in other constituencies where they are concentrated in good numbers and can influence the outcome of election. In achieving this goal it is of paramount importance that the minority community move in a group and do not engineer division amongst themselves on the basis of caste, creed, religion or language, or on the basis of party affiliations or based on petty personal agenda. It will be a self-defeating step. One thing should be understood by the minority group in Meghalaya is that primary politics available to them is the "politics of survival", ideological politics, if there is any, will come later. The support extended to any candidate, whether belonging to any political party or Independent, should be done openly on the basis of assurances given by the candidate or by his/her party that they will take up the cause of the minority community along with other general problems faced by the people of the State. But before the final choice is made regarding a candidate his/her personal profile should form the basis of such choice and at the same time it should be remembered that at times a candidate belonging to a political party fails to deliver as desired by the voters due to party whip. Serious consideration should be given before every single vote is cast, because the voters should remember that posterity would judge them from their present activity. A judicious step now will help usher in a change that every citizen of Meghalaya is hoping the coming election would trigger.

Yours etc.,
Dr Subrata Das
Shillong-4

Inspector General of Police (Special Branch) Khagen Sharma said the outfit, ULFA, had planned to skyjack an Air India plane from Guwahati airport to Pakistan, this was revealed after interrogating the ULFA cadre, Manoj Tamuly, who was arrested in the city on Saturday night with one pistol and four rounds of ammunition.

Based on his confession, prominent advocate Nekibur Zaman was also arrested. Another human rights activist Lachit Bardoloi's house was raided while a television journalist Pradeep Gogoi was arrested from Tinsukia during the last 12 hours.

Mr Sharma said Tamuly had received the hijacking training in the jungles of Baska district of Assam, adjacent to Bhutan border. The training was imparted by one Rasik Ahmed, believed to be an ISI operative, said Mr Sharma.

The arrested ULFA cadre had confessed before media that the plan was to hijack the plane to Thimpu and from there a new set of ULFA men would take the aircraft to Rawalpindi.

The ULFA, however, denied this and claimed this was a disinformation campaign to scuttle the political process in Assam.

In an e-mailed statement, the ULFA publicity in-charge, Rubi Bhuyan, today said, ''We have no such plan. There was no training for this purpose.

This campaigning had been going on for quite some time and it was just an attempt to block the political process''.

However, the arrest of wellknown advocate Zaman had jolted the legal community. Mr Zaman is a known sympathiser of the ULFA and he handled the ULFA related cases for past 20 years.

He said he was followed by two vehicles and fearing for his life he jumped off the wall of his home late last night and fractured his legs.

Police arrested him from hospital and seized his mobile phone.

Police also raided house of Lachit Bardoloi, another sympathiser, who once represented ULFA in negotiation with the Centre. Police seized his laptop.

He was away and over phone he blamed the state Government of hatching conspiracy against him and Zaman.

Police also arrested one Ms Dhariti Sharma along with Tarmuly.

A journalist of the same television channel, Pradeep Gogoi was arrested by police last night from Tinsukia and being brought to the Guwahati city.

The journalist was accused of helping ULFA militants to sneak into the city using his official vehicle, Police said.

Meanwhile, the security arrengements have been tightened in the Guwahati International Airport and in the city. Besides, the CISF, the Black Cat Commandos were on guard at the arrival and departure gates. (UNI)

Guwahati: There is further decline in the volume of export of Indian tea since last year because of the stiff competition it has faced in the international market from brands made available by Sri Lanka and Kenya.

Tea Association India (TAI), Assam branch, Secretary Dipanjal Deka informed that the industry was worried over decline in tea export volume by 62 million kilograms in 2007 compared to the export volume in the year 2006.

The country exported only around 156.7 million kilograms of tea last year compared to 218.7 million kilograms in the previous year, recording a shortfall of 62 million kilograms.

According to figures available around 98.81 million kilograms of north Indian tea was exported in the year 2006 and the figure came down to 84.05 last year. Similarly, 119 million kilograms of south Indian tea was exported in the year 2006 and the volume declined to 72.65 million kilograms last year much to the worry of the industry.

Decline in production volume of Indian tea last year compared to the production figure of the year 2006 is one of the reasons that are being attributed for decline in export volume as overall global tea production increased last year.

The country produced 944.68 million kilograms of tea till December, 2007 compared to 955.91 million kilograms produced in the year 2006.

Moreover, Indian tea industry is yet to find a proportionate international market to compensate for loss of a traditional huge export market in the wake of breaking up of the erstwhile USSR that used to import about 140 million kgs of Indian tea ever year.

Now, only Russia imports average 60 million kgs of tea from India.

Meanwhile, the entry of Sri Lankan and Kenyan tea in the international market has pushed out Indian tea from some of its traditional international markets.

The unique selling point (USP) for Sri Lankan and Kenyan tea is that these varieties are cheaper in the international market because of lower cost of production back home.

The TAI official informed that cost of production of tea in India is much higher than in Sri Lanka and Kenya, the two main competitors in the market. This because of very high labour cost in India.

The labour cost amounts to around 50 percent of the total cost of production in the country. The cost of production of tea in Kenya is around 30 percent less than that in India.

Moreover, tea companies of Sri Lanka and Kenya have been able to woo more international buyers by offering credit for a much longer period compared to Indian tea companies that are suffering from cash crunch.

Low cost of production enables tea companies in Sri Lanka and Kenya to give credit to importers for more than two months, but most of India tea companies reeling under high cost of production can hardly offer credit to international buyers.

The tea official informed that Indian tea industry didn’t believe that the export volume was on a decline because of any decline in quality of tea produced in the country. " Indian tea is definitely not inferior to tea produced in other countries and these days all the exporting companies take adequate care to maintain quality," he said.