ASSAM

Officials of the Inland Water Transport (IWT) department said that the four high-quality vessels would integrate passenger and vehicle ferry Services into the state’s wider transport Network system. Out of the four vessels with the capacity of 100 passengers and 50 two wheelers and powered by 180 HP twin engines each, two would be operated on river Brahmaputra at Majuli and one each in between Guwahati-North Guwahati and Uzanbazar-Umananda ferry ghats.

The vessels have advanced equipment including control and monitoring, Communication and , GPS, echo-sounder, wind measurement, lifesaving and firefighting equipment etc. Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister said that the culture and civilisation of Assam is nurtured by the Brahmaputra and Barak rivers and their tributaries.

has brought glad tidings for the tea garden workers of Assam. About 60% of the 706 tea gardens in the 14 highest tea producing districts of the state have made the full payment of the puja bonus to its workers by Maha Saptami.
This has been a major issue of confrontation between the tea garden workers and the owners for decades. However, the payment of full bonus this time as agreed upon after several rounds of talks between the workers and managements has received accolades even from the Trade Unions.

Upper AssamsDibrugarhdistrict has the maximum number of (177) tea estates. Out of these, 96 or 54% of the gardens have made full payment of the bonus. A total of 75 tea estates in Dibrugarh have agreed to give 20% bonus this puja. In nearbyTinsukiadistrict, 71 (59%) of the 120 tea estates have made the full payment of bonus, while 41 gardens have declared 20% bonus.

Golaghatdistrict showed a better track records, with 51 out of the 71 tea estates making the full payment of the bonus for this year. Altogether 28 gardens in Golaghat are paying 20% bonus this year. In South Assams Cachar district, which has the highest (57) tea estates among the threeBarak Valleydistricts, 56 gardens have made full bonus payment. Twenty tea gardens in Cachar are paying 20% bonus.

The number of medical colleges in Assam has gone up to eight with a new one in Lakhimpur town in northern part of the state getting approval from the National Medical Commission to start classes for the ongoing session.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma took to Twitter and said, with the new medical college in Lakhimpur, the number of MBBS seats in the state has risen to 1,100.

The Govt. has decided that 75% of seats in Degree Courses of the Govt. and Provincialized Colleges shall be reserve for the students of AHSEC and hence you are requested to take necessary action accordingly,” read the latest letter from the director of higher Education (DHE), Dharma Kanta Mili, to the state universities and government-run colleges.

A directive has also been issued to educational institutions to accommodate 20% more students in the under-graduate (UG) level by increasing the seat capacities. “Govt. in the Education Department has decided to enhance the seat capacity of U.G. level courses in the institutions by 20 % and hence you are requested to accommodate the enhancement by considering admission for day and evening shift,” read the letter, which has been underlined as top most urgent.

As many as 139 electric vehicle charging stations have been set up byIndian OilinAssamsince 2020-21 to meet the countrys net zero emission target by 2070. Altogether, 270 such stations have been set up across the NE region.

Setting up the stations will encourage people to shift towards electric vehicles and in that way, we together will be able to reduce the Carbon Emission sooner. Net zero emission by 2070 is a target set up by the Central government. However, we believe that if we move in tandem, then we will be able to make zero emission by 2046, which would be 100 years of Independence, he added.

Apart from 139 EV charging stations in Assam, 33 have been set up in Manipur, 31 in Tripura, 27 in Arunachal Pradesh, 26 in Meghalaya, 12 in Nagaland and two inMizoram.

The Assam government brought Electric Vehicle Policy in 2021 and Vehicle Scrappage Policy last year with a view to promote EVs, converting the government vehicles and public transport to EVs by 2030 and scrapping the vehicles reaching 15 years of age.

The electric vehicle policy seeks to encourage rapid adoption of electric vehicles in a manner where they contribute to 25% of all new vehicle registrations by 2026. However, lack of enough charging stations has been the biggest stumbling block in the transition to EVs.

In order to attract people towards EVs, the announced an incentive of Rs 20,000, Rs 50,000 and Rs 1,50,000 for two wheelers, three wheelers and four wheelers respectively for early adoption of EVs. Exemption or reimbursement of registration charges and road tax on electric vehicles for 5 years will also be provided as per the policy.

TheAssamgovernment said the SDG India Index 2020-21, which has put the state among the bottom five, does not reflect the actual pciture as it was based on old data of National Family Health Survey 4 (NFHS) survey of 2015-16.

According to the third edition of the SDG India Index, which was released by , Assam’s total score from its performance in 16 goals on 115 quantitative indicators and a qualitative assessment on Goal 17, is 57 and has been ranked 26th among 28 states.

The SDG Index says “this poor performance is attributed to the low scores obtained specifically in the two indicators related to rate of crimes and violence against Women, with the rates being highest in the country.” It adds, “The highest rate of crime against women was witnessed in Assam at about 178, followed by the UT of Delhi at 144 crimes per 1,00,000 female Population.”

The SDG Index report has also pointed out that the data for all states and UTs for any particular indicator should not belong to different reference periods for the sake of statistical comparability but in some cases, the Index had to source data from an older edition of the national survey report which covered all or most of the states and UTs.

Union Home ministerAmit Shahwill launch a mobile application here on Thursday that will help people file FIRs or Police complaints without even visiting a police station.
On the eve of his visit to the state to mark the completion of the second year of the Himanta Biswa Sarma-led government, the CM said, People will no longer have to go to a police station to lodge a complaint or an FIR. A special mobile application will be launched by the Union home minister for theAssamPolice, which will make the entire process of filing an FIR hassle-free and less time-consuming.
The application has been developed jointly by the Assam Police and the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL). An Assam Police source said the app will have 15-20 features, including lodging of FIR, missing complaint and tenant verification, among others.

Of the 1,700 schools that had applied to the fee regulatory committee of the since October last year seeking a certificate of exemption from fee-cuts by the panel for the session 2021-2022, about 95% schools gave affidavits saying their fee structure was well within the maximum limit notified by the state government, said a member of the FRC.

The rest 5% moved the panel to review their plea for allowing them to charge as per their proposed fee structure, higher than the limit fixed by the government. The regulated fees from Classes I to XII were declared by the state government on FRCs recommendation.