Land Of The Missing People

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For records, law and order situation has improved a lot in India's North East region of late. There are fewer killings, fewer attacks and fewer people wounded. Now, just when you are all tempted to say ‘how wonderful!’, comes the news: there are people vanishing, in thousands, every year, all over the region. 

Topping the list is Manipur where over 300 people disappear every year. Every morning, as you open a newspaper, you will come across 7-10 faces of the “missing persons”, listed on the last page.

Third Nagaland: One demand, Many Questions

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The state of Nagaland – the 16^th state in the Indian Union - was created in 1963. Soon after that, the Nagas started an armed movement for an independent, sovereign Nagaland, outside of the Indian constitution. Thousand died in the bloody battle between the separatists and the Indian army, before the two parties agreed on a ceasefire. And now, here is a new, dramatic development taking place in Nagaland: Demand for a separate statehood. 

After decades of ambush, encounter and combing operations, there is finally some peace in Nagaland; a ceasefire is on between the government and the National Socialist Council of Nagaland Isaac Muivah group (NSCN –IM)

 NSCN – the all powerful Naga separatist group. Yet, angry slogans are being heard on the streets of Nagaland now, this time for a new state called Frontier Nagaland.

ONGC: The Crude and Spilling Secret

Oil spills have, of late, become a common occurrence in India. In past 1 year we have seen 3 such cases in Mumbai and Goa, results of accidental colliding of tankers and leakages. 

But there is (almost unnoticed to the rest of the country) one massive oil spill that nobody can call an accident: crude oil spillage from an abandoned oil rig in 2 villages called Champang and Tssori in Wokha district of Nagaland(north east India). Guess how long the spillage has continued? 16 years! And guess who did it? None other than one of India’s Navratna(9 star) companies: the Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC).