MIZORAM: Weekly News Round-up
In this weekly news roundup from Mizoram, we bring you the most important events and developments from Manipur state in the Northeast.
In an era where information is constantly evolving, our mission is to bring you a curated selection of the week’s top stories, offering a concise and insightful overview of the key happenings in politics, technology, business, science, entertainment, and more.
Ruling Mizo National Front (MNF) confident of retaining power
The ruling Mizo National Front (MNF) party said that it is confident of retaining power in the next assembly polls to be held later this year. Speaking to reporters at a press conference in Aizawl on Saturday, MNF media and publicity general secretary VL Krosshnehzova said the MNF government has been making massive effort since it came to power in 2018.
Elections to the 40-member Mizoram assembly are due later this year. A team of Election Commission of India (ECI) headed chief election commissioner will visit the state to oversee poll preparedness.
In the present assembly, the MNF has 27 members, main opposition Zoram People’s Movement ( ZPM)- 6, Congress -5 and BJP has one member. Dr. K. Beichhua, who resigned as a minister in December last year, was expelled from the MNF in January. He will join the BJP ahead of the assembly polls.
Mizoram Govt introduces collective farming policy
The Government of Mizoram has introduced a collective farming policy to ensure proper and systematic management of wet rice cultivation areas by farmers. Speaking to reporters at a press conference in Aizawl, Mizoram’s Agriculture Minister, C. Lalrinsanga said that the existing system of wet rice cultivation is unprofitable and harvest could not increase as the owners used to hire farmers or tenants from outside the state, who cultivated the land and the harvest is being divided into two equal parts between the owner and the farmer.
Under this collective farming policy, the caretaker of wet rice cultivation area or farmers has been divided into two categories – Category-I will cover 51 to 100 land or WRC area owners or farmers and category-II will cover 20-50 owners or farmers, he said.
The wet rice cultivation owner will function as Farmer Producer Organisation (FPO) and they will be assisted to increase their rice and vegetable produces by employing modern methods, he said. The FPO will be provided with tilling machine, sowing machine, harvest machine and other necessary equipment, he said. Each FPO will given equity grants and corpus fund. They can also avail financial assistance from agriculture infrastructure fund NABARD, NDC and SFAC, he said.
The agricultural minister said that survey is being conducted to create production clusters at Zophai, Saihapui in Kolasib district, Serchhip Mat Zawlpui area, Lunglei Nghasih, Khawrihnim – Mamit District, Chhungte – Champhai, Samthang – Champhai, Hualtu – Serchhip, Sialsir – Serchhip, Chawngtlai, Chhawrtui, Lungchhuan, and Suangk.
CAG reports Mizoram Govt incurred loss of Rs. 4.88 cr to wasteful expenditure
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India slams the Mizoram government for incurring an avoidable expenditure of Rs 4.88 crore on formation cutting of Darlak to Sihthiang village in Tripura border Mamit district due to negligence.
The CAG report states that the construction of the Darlak-Sihthiang raod was undertaken under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadhak Yojana (PMGSY) despite the village being already connected. The construction work was put on hold in July 2021 due to non-availability of Forest Clearance and the department proposed for dropping of the project to the Ministry in July 2022. Out of the contract value Rs. 52.81 crore the PWD incurred Rs. 4.88 crore till April 2022.
The state government admitted (August 2022) that since Sihthiang village has been connected through NABARD loan, the project under PMGSY was proposed for dropping to the Ministry of Rural Development in July 2022, the audit report said.
Over 40,000 first-time voter in Mizoram
There will be a total of 8.38 lakh voters in the upcoming elections as per official reports. The number of male voters are 4.06 lakhs and the number of female voters are 4.32 lakhs. The number of service electors are 5021 and the number of PwD voters are 3058.
There will also be a total of 40,934 first time voters aged 18-19. These data were highlighted at a press conference on the Review of Poll Preparedness for forthcoming Assembly Elections in Mizoram. In total, there are 1276 polling stations and the average voter per polling station is 657. Out of these polling stations, 95 will be women managed, 40 will be youth managed and 11 will be PwD managed.
