This Week The Northeast: Longest train route

Quake damage and why

Two months after a devastating earthquake claimed nearly 100 lives and rendered several thousand people homeless,the Geological Survey of India has come out with a report saying most of the buildings in the state were built on land with a fragile sub-surface. Heavy construction on such fragile land without clearance from structural experts was the major reason behind the extensive damage,the GSI has said. In a seminar on ‘Housing,Rehabilitation and Resilience’ organised by the Sikkim Studies Programme of the Centre for Northeast Studies,experts asked the state government to constitute a Sikkim State Disaster Management Policy as has been already done by Gujarat,Assam and Kerala.

No women pastors

The Mizoram Presbyterian Church has rejected a proposal to ordain women as pastors or as church elders. The first time a Mizoram woman was elected as a church elder was in the 1970s — she was subsequently denied that position. A demand for creating gender equality within the church met with the same fate this week with the decision of the Synod Executive Committee,the highest decision-making body of the Mizoram Presbyterian Church. The Baptist Church of Mizoram too had refused to ordain a woman despite this having been recommended by the pastoral committee of the same church earlier this year.

No water to run power plant

Arunachal Pradesh may have been often referred to as India’s storehouse of hydro-electric power with the government dreaming of harnessing over 40,000 MW in the next decade. But with climate change having its impact,shortage of water has drastically brought down power production in the Ranganadi hydel project,forcing the Northeast Electric Power Corporation to operate the project for only about five hours a day. This in turn has prompted the government to go for massive load-shedding,with little possibility of the situation improving before the monsoon returns in May or June 2012.

Bandhs no bar

Manipur is not always about indefinite bandhs,highway blockades,insurgency and encounter deaths. Though tese have become part of life,Manipuris this week found time to organise and take part in Sangai festival,the week-long official tourism festival of the state. And despite the coverage that the bandhs get in the media all over,participants have come in from countries like Thailand,Kenya,North Korea and Myanmar. Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh said with the Centre lifting the Protected Area Permit (PAP) for the state for one more year,Manipur hopes to get foreign visitors despite bandhs and blockades.