ASSAM

Chief ministerHimanta Biswa Sarmaexpressed hope thatAssamwill achieve 13% state GDP (SGDP) Growth this year, with the states economy becoming more vibrant with significant decline in bandhs and agitations. We have achieved a high growth trajectory in Assam.

In the last fiscal, our state GDP (SGDP) growth was around 12.66% and this year too, we are aiming to achieve the target of 12% to 13%. This is unique in the entire country.

He added that Assam has achieved a milestone in the preceding year by becoming a state, which is no longer a dependent state on the Centre for paying salaries to its employees. He credited organisations for shunning bandhs and protests for the conducive created for the growth story.

Sarma said of the Rs 2,500 crore that Assam receives from the Union Government, except for Rs 900 crore that is being spent for payment of pension, the rest Rs 1,200 to Rs 1,400 is being spent on development projects. He said Assam has registered rapid growth of 26% in tax collection.

A month after the Dholpur eviction inAssam’s Darrang district, the Hojai District Administration evicted around 550 out of 670 total families, who had allegedly encroached around 500 hectares of land in the Lumding reserve forest.

The evicted families belonging to Garo, Chakma and Muslim communities were living in the forest land growing ginger and turmeric since 2011-12. The people used to produce turmeric worth around Rs 25 crore a year.

Assamchief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma informed the 70th Plenary of the North Eastern Council (NEC) here on Sunday that measures are being taken for an amicable settlement to the inter-state border disputes in the northeast, with 50% of Assam’s boundary row with Meghalaya lready been resolved.

He said processes have been initiated to arrive at a permanent solution to Assam’s boundary dispute with Arunachal Pradesh. Sarma insisted on the need of initiating a concerted effort by the governments of all the northeastern states, if boundary disputes are to be settled once and for all.

He also felt the need for a museum in Assam to highlight the ethnic, cultural artefacts and products of the northeastern states. Sarma assured the NEC of all co-operation, including allotment of land, from the government of Assam, if the regional statutory advisory body comes up with a concrete plan for such a museum.

Nearly 22 Rhinos have been killed in Assam by poachers since 2017. The government of India had set up ten fast-track sessions courts over the years for speedy trials of wildlife-related crimes.

In Asia, There are 3 species of rhino which includes Greater one-horned, Javan and Sumatran.

India is Home to the most significant number of Greater One-Horned Rhinoceros in the world.

Poaching for the horns and habitat loss are two significant threats for the rhinos.

The five rhino range nations are India, Nepal, Bhutan, Indonesia & Malaysia.

All these Nations have signed a declaration, The New Delhi Declaration on Asian Rhinos 2019, to conserve and protect the species.

Status: Javan and Sumatran Rhino – Critically endangered; Greater one-horned rhino – vulnerable

In India, rhinos are extensively found in Kaziranga National Park, Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary (WLS), Orang National Park and Manas National Park, Jaldapara National Park and Gorumara National Park, Dudhwa Tiger Reserve.

Conservation Efforts by India: The Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate-change”>Climate Change has begun a project to create DNA profiles of all rhinos in the country.

In India, National Rhino Conservation Strategy was launched in the year 2019 to preserve the higher one-horned rhinoceros.

Indian Rhino Vision 2020 was launched in the year 2005 to achieve a wild Population of at least 3,000 increased one-horned rhinos spread over seven included areas in the Indian nation of Assam by the year 2020.

Assamchief minister Himanta BiswaSarma said the state is on course to move pastPunjaband become the 16th largest state in terms of gross state domestic product (GSDP) in the next few years.

This is the first time since its inception in 1927 that FICCI is holding its national executive committee meeting in the state. Expressing his gratitude towards FICCI for choosing Guwahati, Sarma said this would aid in the upward economic Growth trajectory of the state.

Referring to turmoil, strife, instability as things of the past, Sarma said Assam has been witnessing a never-before-seen spell of peace, progress and prosperity on all fronts since 2014.

Erratic supply of Vaccines has slowed down the pace of immunisation to the extent that if the third wave were to hit the state in August, about 50% of Assam’s adult Population would be vulnerable as they have not been fully vaccinated.

Amid third wave concerns, the Meghalaya government upped its vaccination drive by roping in community and religious leaders in the hill state to overcome hesitancy. Tripura is in a better position because it has the highest vaccination record of its targeted population. Assam being the gateway to the northeast, the shortage of vaccines has become a matter of concern.
Statistics furnished by the immunization office in Assam showed 87.58lakhpeople have been vaccinated. By Saturday evening, a total of 72.32 lakh of the 2.37 crore 18+ population got the first shot. This accounts for 31% of the eligible population. On the other hand, only 15.26 lakh beneficiaries have received the second shot.

In Meghalaya, chief minister Conrad K Sangma, who had flagged the shortage as a ‘big concern’ for the state during the video-meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has urged all eligible citizens to take the vaccine even as the has been strengthening and upgrading Health Infrastructure to deal with a possible third wave.

TheAssamgovernment will engage an IIT for quality audit and risk management assessment of the Guwahati-North Guwahati bridge under construction over the Brahmaputra, as the same agency which was building the bridge inBiharthat collapsed on June 4, is building the bridge in the state.

The bridge between Sultanganj and Aguani over the Ganga in Bihar was said to have involved an estimated cost of Rs 1,700 crore.

He directed the officials of the public works department to consult IIT Guwahati and instructed them to do a risk management assessment of the project in order to maintain high standards of construction.

He said about 73% of the construction has been completed and the bridge will be ready by next year. The budgetof the project was Rs 2600 crore, of which Rs 1900 crore have been spent on the construction work.

The has set up a high-level committee, headed by DGPRupin Sharma, to restructure and reorganise theNagalandPolice so as to make it more efficient on functional and operational lines.

Addressing media persons at the Police headquarters inKohima,deputyCM Y Patton, who is also in-charge of the Home department, said the committee will look into all aspects of policing and make recommendations based on its findings.

He said workable and genuine suggestions are welcome from the public to improve the department and law and order in the state and also to create an Environment for better development.

In furtherance of PM Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah’s ‘Nasha Mukt Abhiyaan’, the state police has registered 101 cases and arrested 143 criminals, he said, adding that the arrested persons include six police personnel.

Soon after taking charge as the new Assam Accord Implementation minister, Atul stepped into the office of the All Assam Students’ Union (Aasu) at Swahid Nyas Bhawan Uzanbazar to meet the top office bearers of the student body, including chief adviser Samujjal Bhattacharyya, his old comrade in arms.

Former Aasu president Bora’s visit to the nerve-centre of Aasu’s activism in the heart of the city is of political significance, even as the leading student body claims it to be an ‘apolitical’ organization. After the culmination of the six-year anti foreigners’ movement (1979-85) with the signing of the 1985 Assam Accord, Bora has become the first minister of the department to visit the Swahid Nyas.