ASSAM

Bearing the train no. 15906 (Dibrugarh to Kanyakumari) Vivek Express, which previously used to run on Saturdays, will now operate additionally every Tuesday from November 22, a press release issued by NFR said and the train no. 15905 (Kanyakumari to Dibrugarh) Vivek Express, which currently runs only on Thursdays, will now be available even on Sundays from November 27, the release mentioned.

Smartphone availability at Home for schoolchildren has doubled to 71% during the Covid pandemic in Assam and for the two northeastern states of Manipur and Nagaland it went up to 92% this year. But their access to smartphones for purposes of study remains a concern. For more than half of the schoolchildren, smartphones are available sometimes or not accessible at all.

This was revealed in the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2021, covering 581 districts across 25 states and three Union Territories in the country.

In the five northeastern states, where the survey was conducted, the smartphones were available at homes of 36.1% of the surveyed children of Assam in 2018. The corresponding figure in Manipur went up to 92.9% in 2021 from 53.4% in 2018. In Nagaland also smartphones were available with 92.9% children at home in 2021, though the same was 50% in 2018. For Meghalaya, the corresponding figures were 41.3% (2018) and 77.9% (2021) respectively.

In Assam, 51.4% of the surveyed children got access to smartphones for purposes of study sometimes, whereas for 22.9% it was not accessible despite being available at home. In Manipur, 39.9% got access only sometimes and for 24.5% it was not accessible. The corresponding figures for Meghalaya were 34.2% and 30.7% respectively.

Interestingly, in Nagaland, 41% got access to smartphones sometimes, though only for a mere 3.8% it was inaccessible. InArunachal Pradesh, 84.6% of the enrolled schoolchildren had smartphones at home in 2021. But 50.7% of them had access for study purposes sometimes, while it was not accessible for 19.9%. In Arunachal, which has a poor mobile Network coverage in the vast hilly and mountainous terrain, only 57.3% children had smartphones at home in 2018.

Research manager of the study for Assam, Trishna Lekharu, told TOI that the demand for smartphones increased during Covid across India. Although the number of houses with smartphones increased, the level of their availability for children’s studies was low. The good news is that the availability of smartphones can help the government in delivering smart education through the digital media, she said.

ASER 2021 was a household rural survey conducted via phone. At an all India level, 67.6% children were found to have a smartphone at home.

, Haryana andTamil Naduemerged the cleanest among all large states on parameters of rural sanitation whileAssam, Bihar and Jammu and Kashmir were the three worst performers, according to the Swachh Survekshan Grameen (SSG) 2022.

Among districts Bhiwani in Haryana is the cleanest even as the second and third best performers award were bagged by Jagtial and Nizamabad districts of Telangana. Golaghat district of Assam finished at the bottom of 709 districts, which were ranked in this survey. The two other worst performers were from Bihar Banka (708 rank) and Katihar (707).

Since Delhi and Chandigarh are fully urbanised UTs, these were not ranked.

Filmmaker Kripal Kalitas debut feature film Bridge ,which throws Light on the devastations and hardships that floods bring to Assam villages every year, is among the 12 movies that are currently being viewed by jury members who will finally select the Indian entry to the Oscars.

The 18-member panel has started the selection of the film at a cinema hall in Kolkata, sources said.

Bridge, which bagged the Special Mention award, at the International Film Festival of India in Goa this January, is set in Assam and is a colourful canvas of an unusual struggle of a teenage girl residing along the bank of a tributary of the mighty Brahmaputra. Every year, the Brahmaputra and its tributaries flood many villages and ruin cultivation. Kalita said the films protagonist Jonaki goes through an unusual struggle caused by floods. Her plight gets aggravated by the absence of a bridge over the river.

Directly promoting FMCG company Amway India has announced that it has appointed Olympian Saikhom Mirabai Chanu as the company ambassador for Amway and its Nutrilite range of products.

Chanu will spearhead the companys campaigns centered on product tiers such as Nutrilite Daily, Omega and All Plant Protein amongst others. Chanu, a weightlifter, received the silver medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the womens 49kg category.

Assamhas recorded a three-time rise in HIV-positive cases in the last three years, with an increasing trend of injecting drug users (IDUs) spreading the virus, officials inAssam State AIDS Control Society(ASACS) said.

Data assessed from ASACS said from 1,288 HIV-positive cases detected in 2020-21, the corresponding figure has gone up to 4,018 by 2022-23.
On an Average, 335 cases were detected per month last year (total 4,020 in 2022-23), but since April this year, the detection of positive cases per month has gone up to 445 (1,334 so far).

Around 50% (669 of the 1,334 HIV positive) cases detected in the last three months are IDUs, which officials said is unusually high if compared to the HIV scenario three years ago. Of the 1,288 positive cases detected in 2020-21, only 76 cases or 6% were IDUs.

The concerning trend of IDUs started becoming evident from 2021-22 when 26.54% (628 cases) of the 2,366 HIV-positive cases detected in the state in 2021-22, were IDUs. The corresponding figure further went up to 43.7% in 2022-23 when of the total 4,018 positive cases, 1,756 were IDUs.

In 2022-23, the highest 816 HIV-positive cases were detected in Kamrup (Metro) district, under which falls the Guwahati city areas on an average, it was 68 cases per month.

But in the last three months, 275 cases (an average of 92 cases per month) have been detected in Kamrup (Metro). Kamrup (Metro) district has always reported the highest number of positive cases in the state as the city is a vital transit route for truckers.

But of late, drug users have carried the threat to districts like Nagaon which act as a junction for northern, upper and hill districts of the state. After Kamrup (Metro), the highest 707 cases have been detected from Nagaon district in 2022-23.

Assamwill raise specialpolice commando battalionson the lines of the National Security Guards (NSG) to guard the state’s land at inter-state borders, where frequent attempts of encroachment by miscreants from neighbouring states have been continuing for long. The commandos will also be deployed at other critical hotspots.

We want to raise 10 specialcommando battalionsand deploy them in critical areas like the Assam-Nagaland border where there are often law and order situations, at various sensitive areas in Tinsukia district, the Bodoland Territorial Region and hills districts where we need to have presence of our Police force,” chief ministerHimanta Biswa Sarmasaid after chairing the first conference with SPs of all districts at Kaziranga.

Assam government has introduced dress code for teachers of all educational institutions to maintain a decent academic in the campus. According to the new guidelines, some restrictions on dresses have been imposed for the teachers and they are recommended to wear the dresses as proposed while in schools.

The recommendation issued by the Education Department stated that casual attires like jeans, t-shirts, leggings cannot be worn while on duty. Disciplinary action as per rule will be taken against teachers who violate these instructions.