Mr Lapang told reporters on Wednesday that with Assembly election round the corner, he did not want the Congress to take the blame for starting uranium mining in the State, saying opinion of all political parties was important before his government arrived at a decision on the issue.

Majority of the parties, especially KHNAM and HSPDP, supporting the Congress-led MDA Govern-ment are opposed to uranium mining in the State.

The same is the case with the State Government's decision to hand over power projects to private firms. A major MDA ally, UDP has expressed surprise over the manner in which the State Cabinet approved handing over of five power projects to private companies.

A number of Cabinet ministers were absent at the December-7 meeting which decided to hand over power projects to private companies from outside Meghalaya.

At least six ministers later went on record protesting the Cabinet decision.

They pointed out that several clauses of the new State Power Policy were not taken into account by the government before deciding to allow private companies to take up power projects in the State.

A Cabinet meeting is likely to be held next week to review the issue.

Meanwhile, KSU general secretary Hamlet Dohling said the union would convene a meeting with various political parties next week to discuss the "sensitive parts" of the proposed uranium project. A separate meeting will also be held with leaders of various organisations on the issue, he added.

NEW DELHI: With the Assembly elections drawing closer, Meghalaya Chief Minister DD Lapang has sought additional Central paramilitary forces for peaceful polling in the State.

Mr Lapang met Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil on Wednesday and asked the latter for deployment of a substantial number of CRPF personnel, particularly women, considering large-scale presence of women in public life in a matrilineal society like Meghalaya's. He also wanted the Central forces to reach the State at least one week before the polls.

Mr Patil assured the Chief Minister of looking into his request whenever the situation demanded such action.

Announcement of elections to legislative assemblies of Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura was supposed to be made last month but has been delayed due to Constitutional crisis in Nagaland.

"Meghalaya is a peaceful state with much better law and order situation," Mr Lapang told The Shillong Times after meeting with Mr Patil.

The State Government has to take precautionary measures to stop anti-national elements from creating trouble during the polls, he said.

Meanwhile, Mr Lapang joined the chorus of protest against attack on Christian community in tribal districts of Orissa and demanded stern action against the culprits to ensure peace and communal harmony all over the country including the North-East.

During his meeting with Mr Patil before his departure to Orissa, Mr Lapang said attack on minority communities was a matter of serious concern for all secular people of the country.

"The Christian community in the North-East feels anxious and threatened by such incidents. They need to be reassured that their liberties would not be allowed to be curbed in this manner," he said.

Mr Patil shared the concern of Mr Lapang and urged him to help maintain peace and harmony in the sensitive northeastern region.

Patil, accompanied by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik,

Union Minister Chandrasekhar Sahu, Leader of Opposition in Orissa assembly J B Patnaik and state Congress President Jayadev Jena, visited Barakhama village where nearly 200 houses were set afire.

"Barakhama was one of the worst hit villages. We spoke to people whose houses were burnt," he said.

He said affected people were being given food, clothes and essential items at rehabilitation camps.

During his brief visit to the national capital, Mr Lapang also met Union Tribal Affairs Minister PR Kyndiah and other Central leaders.

KSU had earlier served a deadline on the MDA Government to withdraw the December-7 Cabinet decision within December 31. The State Government, however, has neither responded to the KSU demand nor called the students' body for discussion.

"We will meet in a day or two to discuss our future course of action," KSU general secretary Hamlet Dohling told The Shillong Times on Wednesday.

He reiterated that the Cabinet's decision on power projects was detrimental to the interests of the State, adding the proposed meeting would discuss the impact of the recent environmental clearance issued by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests to UCIL for uranium mining project at Mawthabah, West Khasi Hills.

Addressing a public rally at Mairang, UDP president Dr Donkupar Roy said all regional parties, including MDP, KHNAM and HSPDP, should come together to take on national parties like Congress and NCP in the coming elections.

"If all regional parties come together, the national parties will have a tough time in the coming elections," Dr Roy said.

He said UDP had continued its effort to unite regional parties for the past five years while trying its best for merger of MDP and UDP but in vain.

MDP, led by Martle Mukhim, was formed following a split in UDP just before the 2003 elections.

Admitting that the split in UDP was the main cause of the party's defeat in Mairang seat in the last Assembly polls, the UDP chief claimed that this time round his party was in a better position with the return of former members and sitting MDP MLAs DP Iangjuh and PT Sawkmie.

Mr Iangjuh and Mr Sawkmie contested the previous elections as MDP candidates from

Mawsynram and Mawlai constituencies respectively.

"UDP thought of pulling out of the MDA Government several times due to the infighting in Congress. However, for the sake of political stability we have continued to stay with the government for the full term of five years," Dr Roy said.

The public rally was organised to announce the name of UDP candidate for Mairang constituency Metbah Lyngdoh, who is also a prominent Shillong-based businessman.

Former Chief Minister JD Rymbai, who is set to fight the Assembly elections on UDP ticket, will resign from the Congress this weekend.

Talking to reporters on Wednesday, Mr Rymbai said he had decided to contest the polls as UDP candidate and would quit Congress within this week.

When contacted, UDP spokesman Bindo said the party had decided to allot ticket to Rymbai considering his winning chance in the coming polls.

The victims, identified as Khambhah Khyriem who is also Tympang Club sports secretary, and Leki Shylla were admitted to Jowai Civil Hospital.

Eyewitnesses said local villagers, including women, requested the DSP and his security personnel to stop physically attacking the two persons but in vain.

They, however, reported the matter to Additional Deputy Commissioner FM Doph and two other magistrates who later brought the situation under control.

Relatives of the injured and Tympang Club have lodged separate FIRs against the DSP and his four security personnel.

"All border points have been alerted and reports are being obtained ... The district veterinary officer has been instructed to take necessary action," Jaintia Hills deputy commissioner FR.Kharkongor told PTI on Wednesday.

The state government had set up 21 temporary check gates last year along the international border and also constituted a rapid response team to keep a check on cross-border movement of poultry and poultry products.

Task forces, recently constituted in all the districts to monitor the situation, have been asked to remain vigilant as import of chicken and poultry products from the neighbouring country continues to remain banned. (PTI)

In a letter to MBOSE Executive Chairman Tony Travert C Marak, a group of book sellers said that all along they used to get discount of 25-30 percent from publishers from selling MBOSE approved text-books.

"All of a sudden we were shocked that for this current year, the discount was fixed at the rate of 15 percent which would be detrimental to run the business as the margin of profit would be minimal and may lead to loss," the book dealers said.

Further, the book sellers said that fixing of discount at 15 percent would also affect book vendors in rural areas of the State as well as they would no longer get discounted rate and be forced to sell the books at higher price than the actual rate.

Stating that the reduction of the discount would severely affect book sellers in the State as they had to bring the books from publishers located outside the State by road transport which was expensive besides paying other charges on freight, bank, post, porter and others.

"In the event of fixing the discount at 15 percent only, the publishers should be directed to bear all the charges so that our problem is alleviated" the book sellers said in their letter.

The letter also mentioned that frequent change of syllabi and text-books by the State Government without prior intimation to book sellers had caused great loss to them as according to most of them, they would be having a huge dead stock of text-books due to frequent syllabus change.

Meanwhile, sources said the Science and Technology text-book for Class 10 (Meghalaya Edition) earlier published by NCERT at the rate of Rs 80 had now been priced at a whopping Rs 199.

This year the book had been given for publishing to a Delhi-based publisher - Ratna Sagar Private Limited, which has led to such jump of the price by nearly two and half times.

Parents especially those belonging to poor section of the society would be adversely affected by the hike in the price of the books although the idea behind the shift from NCERT text-books to the private publisher is not known despite the provocation it is going to tell on the buyers.

When contacted, MBOSE Executive Chairman refuted the charge that there was any decrease in the discount percentage. "The percentage of discount remained as fixed earlier."

Commenting on frequent change of text books, Mr Marak said the change was effected all over the country as per the recommendations of the National Curriculum Framework 2005 and the NCERT.

While stating that the MBOSE is only an implementing agency, Mr Marak said the authority to change the text books at the State-level lies with the State Government, who initiate the process in collaboration with the Directorate of Educational Research and Training (DERT).

Shillong: The Dorbar Shnong of Lapalang has distributed job cards to all applicants, who applied for jobs under the Meghalaya Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, on December 26 last, informed the administrative secretary of Lapalang village D Kharkrang here on Wednesday. The job cards were distributed to the beneficiaries by the headman of the locality in the presence of executive members of the Dorbar Shnong and families of the beneficiaries.

Under the scheme, an internal motorable road-cum-footpath, about two kilometres in length, will be constructed this year, Mr Kharkrang stated, adding that the Dorbar Shnong Lapalang would plant tree saplings in a two acre land under the scheme.

The centrally-funded scheme promises Rs 60 per day for 100 days of employment a year to one member of every rural unemployed family.

Reacting to news reports in a vernacular daily, Mr Shylla said such remarks "was unwarranted and not expected from a person of your (Tynsong) stature".

Tynsong had reportedly made malicious comments on Mr Shylla at a public gathering held at Jongksha village on December 29 last.

A statement issued here, LJP State general secretary Jamil Ahmed said that from the first list of applicants, the party has selected Clement Mawlong to contest from Sohiong constituency and Meristella Wahlang from Pynthorumkhrah constituency. Party MP Ram Chander Paswan and National General Secretary Mira Chakraborty visited Shillong in December last to finalise the list of candidates for the coming elections.

According to the party, the second list will be released shortly after getting clearance from the central office in Delhi.

According to her confessional statement, Ms Lamare has been associated with the HNLC since 1995.

Police sources informed that she had collected several lakhs of rupees from various businessmen based in Jaintia Hills for the outfit and sent the collected amount to Bangladesh either through other courier via the Amlarem-Dawki route to Bangladesh or to cadres of outfit in Shillong. She has been brought to Shillong for further investigation. Ms Lamare worked as a teacher in a private school at Jowai besides holding the post of president of the Mahila Congress Committee, Jowai.

According to the police, the brother, who was under the influence of alcohol, committed the insensible and shameful act on his sister at the quarters of Irrigation Department, Jowai, while their parents where celebrating New Year's eve with friends at a function. Police, however, refused to divulge the name of the brother.

At Pamanik village, Riki Langstang attempted to rape his sister-in-law while she was returning from a mass locality feast to celebrate the New Year on Monday. According to the police, the girl met her brother-in-law on the way, who pulled her to a nearby jungle and attempted to rape her. Fortunately, some villagers heard her scream and came to her rescue.

Both the culprits were arrested and cases were registered against them.

Roll out the drums. Uncork champagne and welcome the New Year. New hopes. New dreams and new promises. Do you really think I am serious? Is there truly something to cheer and cherish? To look forward to?

Jokes apart, how should one begin an epitaph of the year gone by? Twelve agonizing months of anger and anguish. Of an all-round decline, barring, of course the booming economic front, with the rich getting filthy rich. Wherein things hit the rock bottom politically, administratively and socially. Of a disparate India searching for her soul under the increasing onslaught of immorality, and criminalization. With little thought for the aam janata, growing minority appeasement, casteism and terrorism. That, dear countrymen, is what the New Year is all about. Underscoring much that continues to be wrong in India.

One does not need to look far. Let's start with our polity. After all, everything begins and ends with them in our democracy. And it needs no reiteration that the way they are going we might as well sound the bugle of the beginning of the end. No, I am not being pessimistic or insensitive. I am only stating a harsh reality. Former President Abdul Kalam was ever so right when he lashed out at India's "decision makers with small minds" and deeply grieved over the "shortage of leadership with nobility."

Think. Isn't it ridiculous that a country as vast as India and boasting of a billion-and-growing population is swinging like a yo-yo between hope and despair, thanks to the fracas between partners. The Left has the Congress-led UPA profusely sweating over the Indo-US nuclear deal. Wherein it has threatened to pull the plug if the Government goes ahead with it. This eyeball to eyeball confrontation between gentleman Manmohan Singh and the thorny Left has pushed the country into suspended animation.

Today, post the BJP's resounding victories in Gujarat and Himachal, the basic issue is not the Indo-US nuclear deal or whether the UPA Government stays or goes. Or, who is to blame and why? But the most striking aspect of this crass episode is the sad spectacle of today's political class capriciously exposing their hollowness and hypocrisy of political commitment and subordinating national interest to petty personal interests and egos. Thus undermining further the people's eroding faith in democracy as a desirable system.

Just see. The country is in the throes of deadly terrorism and instead of coming to grips with it, the UPA and the Left are both humming about a mid-term poll, not about national interest, stability and good governance. Last week, former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's brutal assassination underscored as never before that India is in the crosshairs of terrorists, serious and deadly terrorists. Please note. Of the 670 districts in the country, as many as 270 are terror-prone and 70 of these have already been ravaged by terrorists. Terror has already cost India more than 72,000 civilians and 12,000 security personnel.

More worrisome is the fact that 15 States are Naxalite-hit and there are 40 Naxalite groups active in India. Having links with Pakistan's ISI and the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). Making even the semblance of governance virtually impossible in half the country. Worse, they are running a state within a state, with their own parallel revenues. In Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, teenagers are busy romancing the Naxalites. The terrorists' war games of "robbing Peter to pay Paul" have earned them more cadres. Even if it is for two square meals a day and chicken thrice a week.

Are these merely stray incidents of violence? No, a big no. They are just torch-bearers of the rising peoples anger and discontent against the widening disparities sweeping across the country. They have seen through the "sham of democracy" and refuse to say die. Call it the Chak De effect, they have made poverty their USP. Whereby they no longer will tolerate injustice or inequality. The lathi and gun is now the symbol of their disillusionment with the polity.

Tragically, nobody has time for the aam aadmi's growing disillusionment with the system which explodes in rage. Turn to any mohalla, district or state in the country, the story is mournfully the same. Resulting in more and more people taking law into their own hands. Borne out by the increasing chakka jams, rioting, looting and burning of buses. Capital Delhi is replete with gory tales of road rage resulting in murders. The system has become so sick that women today are being raped in crowded trains with co-passengers as mute spectators. Sporadically converting the country into andher nagri.

Another sad reflection of the times is that minorityism and reservations are the flavours of the season. Anyone and everyone is busy wooing the minorities in the garb of reservations in the educational institutions, recruitment in Government services and bank loans if one is a Muslim. More. The Muslims now have the first claim on Government largesse, a la Manmohan Singh. Are the majority of Indians second class citizens?

Nothing epitomizes this better than the brazen communal campaigning witnessed in the just concluded Gujarat Assembly poll. Astonishingly, the ball was set rolling by the Congress supremo, Sonia Gandhi. Wherein she denounced Modi as a maut ke saudagar. Why? Because the police killed 'terrorist' Soharrabdin in a fake encounter. Retaliated Modi, "It is they who are hand in glove' with maut ke saudagar. Till today, Afzal Guru, who masterminded the attack on Parliament, hasn't been hanged, defying the Supreme Court. "Gujarat ke dharti pe maut ke saudagar nahin rahne doonga!"

Raising a basic question: Should democratic elections be fought merely on the negative and ill-defined premise that my enemy is a maut ka saudagar? Why? Because Modi refuses to fall in line with the Congress's so-called pseudo-secularism? Does he not head a democratically elected Government? Sadly, as oft is the case, power breeds arrogance and absolute power breeds absolute arrogance. Intoxicated by power, all forget that this arrogance often leads to defeat. The BJP's victory in Gujarat and Himachal should be a lesson to Sonia and her chamchu brigade!

Not only that. Rebellion is brewing in the countryside. From Singur and Nandigram in West Bengal to Pune and Vidarbha in Maharashtra, the reaction of the farmers to the Special Economic Zones, the battle of the illiterate village woman in Meerut for her pension or of the weaver in Kancheepuram for his pay are a sure give-away that the aam aadmi is angry, very angry. Either he too partakes the economic cake or else he will stop you from doing so. Anger will no longer be dormant or their life treated as their tryst with destiny. The Asli Bharat wants its share of Brand India.

True, the intelligentsia and political pundits will dismiss the foregone as an over-reaction. But that would be both myopic and tragic for the country. The polity's callous and lackadaisical reaction to the farmers suicide says it all. Compensation is virtually non-existent. Where have the hundreds of crores gone? Even the Prime Minister has rued the fact that the monies are not percolating down to the end user. Yet for our polity, India is Incredible! Economically speaking, our cash tellers are overflowing. Multinationals are wooing everything Indian as never before. India is the flavour and toast globally and on the threshold of becoming a super power. Indian tycoons are the new international takeover kings. The 200 million rich and powerful exult in the luxury of Brand Reel India.

Trust our politicians to lap it up and yell from the rooftops: India is set to rule the world, it has arrived. Where? More to the point, from where? Sadly, beyond the financial might of overflowing tillers et al of Brand India lies the squalor and the filth that is the reality of Brand Asli Bharat. Which no amount of sops or verbosity of Mera Bharat Mahan can disguise.

Shockingly, 77 per cent of India's population of more than one billion lives on just Rs 20 a day. Not only that. A staggering 86 per cent of our working population is in the unorganized sector without any security cover. There are over 12 lakh manual scavengers who load human excreta with their bare hands. These scandalous facts have been compiled by Arjun Sengupta's National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector. Yet, neither the UPA Government or Parliament has so far bothered to respond.

Worse, nearly 44 million children aged 5-14 years are engaged in economic activities and domestic and non-remunerative work. Another 74 million children are neither enrolled in schools nor accounted in the labour force and come under the category of 'Nowhere Children'. And yet we talk of a good deal for Gen Next? Mera Bharat is indeed Mahan!

In sum, the country stands at the crossroads of destiny. It is time for the masses, especially its silent majority, to think beyond the country's petty power-at-all-cost polity, throw out the scoundrels and look at the perilous implications for India's unity, integrity and the future. True, a people, get the leaders and the Government they deserve. But, at the end of the day, are we going to mortgage our conscience to 'small minds'? We need leaders and people with grit and determination. To build a new and honourable India in 2008. ---- INFA

The former Punjab chief minister and the scion of the Patiala royal family, Capt. Amarinder Singh is in the news. One doesn't know if it is for right reason or wrong reason. The other character of the blame game is a Pakistani beauty-journalist Aroosa Alam, who claims to be a "friend of Captain saheb". To make matters worse for Amarinder and Aroosa, the Shahi imam of Jama Masjid in Ludhiana Habib-ur-Rehman issued a fatwa, saying "Islam doesn't permit a woman to call any person other than her husband a friend or roam around with him". The Imam, though, is known to be an Akali sympathiser. Smelling blood, the former chief minister's detractors in the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal charged at him, saying he needs to come clean on the relationship, asking the Union government to inquire into allegations of Aroosa being an ISI agent.

Honey trap is a part of spying game practised by all countries. Ask anyone in the intelligence fraternity about the mole factor and they would recount endless instances and how the establishment repeatedly looked the other way to escape embarrassment.

Set a spy to catch a spy? That's still in the realms of spy fiction, at least in the complacent world of Indian spooks where it takes a headline-blazing spy scandal to spur intelligence agencies into overdrive. Is it any wonder that traitors often go undetected in key establishments and moles turn up within their own ranks?

Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, far better known by its acronym ISI while not in the same league as CIA or Mossad in terms of geospatial or signal intelligence, it can certainly hold its own in honey trap, in other words intelligence collected from human sources.

That ISI controllers continue to expand their network of moles this side of the border by the judicious use of the money, ideology, compromise or coercion and ego or excitement principle, and many army men, intelligence officials have fallen prey to the ISI's game plan to ferret out information. Experts reckon that ISI has managed to penetrate several Indian establishments, ministries and even the armed forces to a certain extent, apart from of course successfully fuelling militancy in different parts of the country.

ISI's strategy to infiltrate the Indian armed forces is "as old as Pakistan" itself, says former ISI chief General Hamid Gul. For instance, Pakistan got to know about Indian Air Force's strike plan during the 1965 war a few days before it actually took place.

There was another flutter in South Block last year when Pakistani politician Gohar Ayub Khan claimed that an Indian brigadier had sold the detailed Indian war plans to Pakistan just before the 1965 conflict for a mere Rs. 20,000.

Coming as it did from the son of Field Marshal Ayub Khan, Pakistan's president during the 1965 war, the claim caused even further turmoil after Gohar Khan tantalisingly added the brigadier had gone on to reach the very top in his career.

Though the claims were dismissed as far-fetched and ludicrous, the Indian defence establishment can no longer pretend that Pakistan has not made serious inroads into its armed forces. Even national security advisor M.K. Narayanan had earlier this year issued warnings about infiltration into the IAF.

The level of penetration is, however, not considered to be life-threatening as yet. But it's enough to send alarm bells ringing all across. "Even during Kargil in 1999, the Pakistani intruders had accurate information of what posts we would vacate in winters, the gaps in our defences and exact troop deployments," recalls a senior Army officer.

The arrest of Ritesh Kumar Vishwakarma, a signalman posted at Leh, and Anil Kumar Dubey, a havaldar posted in New Delhi, in October 2007 was just one more case in a long series of espionage networks directed in the armed forces in recent times.

Official home ministry figures show that just between 2001 and 2005, 99 espionage modules of ISI were neutralised in the country. Individual cases might not amount to much. But pieced together, coupled with signal and other intelligence inputs, they can provide the big strategic picture to an adversary.

ISI footprints have been detected in and around key defence establishments, airbases and field formations across the country, ranging from J&K and North-East to Delhi, Jodhpur, Bangalore, Kolkata, Mumbai and the like,. An ISI spy ring, for instance, operating around naval installations was smashed earlier this year.

ISI's constant endeavour is to cultivate sources to get information about troop deployments, new acquisitions, operational plans and the reorganisation being carried out. This helps in assessing the state of readiness of our forces.

Take the example of Lance Naik Mohammed Javed Khan, posted at the Army's 4 Corps HQ in Tezpur. His officers regarded him as a hardworking sort since he often worked late into the night. And then, the soldier and his father Mohammed Hanif Khan, a retired IAF sergeant, were arrested in July 2005 for "leaking" classified documents to officials in the Pakistan embassy in New Delhi.

Javed Khan had, in fact, used his night stints to copy crucial documents with operational details about the 4 Corps, including deployment of forces and exercises being conducted along the border with China.

There have, of course, also been a few cases of even officers being "tapped" by ISI. For instance, a Navy officer posted abroad had got entangled in an ISI honey-trap some years ago. But before he could get compromised, he returned to India and confessed his deeds.

Then, of course, there is the infamous Navy war-room leak case of last year, which led to the dismissal of three Navy officers and an Air Force officer. Was there a larger conspiracy behind this episode, initially said to be only commercial espionage to help international armament companies?

In 1980s three politicians were accused of having liaison with Pakistani beauties who were working in the High Commission in the visa section. INAV

Sir,

Surreptitious allotment of six major power projects of Meghalaya to some non-descript private companies by the present Congress-led MDA Government is a total sell-out of the most sought after precious state resources of energy of modern era. The deal between UDP-led government and AHCL to construct Meghalaya House at 9-Russel Street, in Kolkata led to furor and stiff opposition by the Congress and some non-descript NGOs like PRAC and others. They described the deal then as 'total sell-out of State assets'. This led to the fall of EK Mawlong government. Will the present DD Lapang-led government suffer the same fate for the sell-out of power projects? Very unlikely, because there is little time to re-align forces and because the MDA coalition partners -- UDP, MDP, HSPDP and KHNAM -- are hands in gloves in giving final shape to these deals. We are talking about the State's precious power resources and wealth, which last for many generations. Should such precious resources be allowed to be looted and plundered by some politicians and private companies? The cardinal principal is that any decision or deals concerning such resources and wealth ought to be brought to the public domain for wide consultation and consensus and also for the transparency sake. Thus, by entering into deals with some private players in six power projects of importance, the MDA government has flouted all norms and rules of power policy and at the same time it has collectively cheated the people of the state for self-aggrandizement. It is a total sell-out. We are not against join ventures of private investments or against the principle of Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) if any transaction or deal is executed in a clean and transparent manner and the interest of the people are kept upper-most. There are two things, which are very seriously wrong in the deals. One is the surreptitious and shady manner in which the Lapang Government signed the deals. Secondly, the credentials of the companies are highly questionable.

As per newspaper reports, some Ministers within the MDA are showing signs of decent over the deals only after when people started making noise. If Mr Lapang is serious about the deals and he means business for the state he should and must scrap the deals forthwith.

It must also be pointed out here that, the MDA allies like the UDP, MDP, KHNAM and HSPDP must own responsibility to these shady deals. If they are free from blames then why did they allow such deals to be signed?

Where are the NGOs which were out on the streets of Shillong when Meghalaya House deal was signed during 2000-2001. Why no noise was made when the same deal was revived by the MDA government? Where is the PRAC now? Why do the public remain mute spectators when their lives and deaths are at stake? Should they continue to allow the state's wealth being plundered by some self-centered and unscrupulous politicians and businessmen? Will they allow such representatives to return to the state legislature in 2008?

Yours etc.,
Pyrkhat Sing Marbaniang
Shillong
Via e-mail

A total of 69 cases were registered with the police for using forged school certificates to enroll names in the photo electoral rolls.

After having a review meeting here, the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) GSG Ayyangar told reporters that as many as 04 fake voters have come under scanner.

"FIRs have been registered against them and police will take action against them under the RP Act," he said.

Under the law, fake voters may spend six months in jail if forgery case is substantiated by the police.

He said that legal action will also be taken against ‘dual’ voters. He said that the final electoral rolls would be published on January 10 next.