Following the ceremonial inauguration of the IBFPL which was held in September 2018 was completed on December 12 last year. The total project cost for construction of the IBFPL is Rs 377.08 crore. Out of this, NRL’s is Rs 91.84 crore for the India portion of the pipeline, while the remaining Rs 285.24 crore for Bangladesh portion is being funded by the Indian government as grant-in-aid, said reports.
ASSAM
Assam: CM opens Rs 8 crore Atal Udyan with ampitheatre, gym at Adabari
Chief ministerHimanta Biswa Sarma inauguratedAtal Udyan, a park with an amphitheatre, atAdabariin the city, in memory of formerPrime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
The park, set up byGuwahati Metropolitan Development Authority(GMDA) at a cost of over Rs 8 crore and covering an area of 8 bighas of land, has a meditation hall, open air gym, a playground for children, murals with a dais besides an amphitheatre with capacity to hold 250 people.
The has been constantly striving towards developing open spaces to turn Guwahati into a modern city with lots of greenery and recreational avenues and with these parks, Guwahati will have five big parks.
Guwahati to get its first gateway ghat terminal by December 2024In a bid to increase the development of waterways of the region and use it as a mode of transport for both people and goods, the Inland Water Transportation Department has announced the construction of the Guwahati Gateway Ghat Terminal. The city is going to get the first modern and state-of-the-art ferry terminal in the region by the end of 2024.
This project will be undertaken on the south bank of the Brahmaputra river in Guwahati and the funding will be done by the . According to reports, this project will incur a total cost of Rs 304 Cr and come up in the Fancy Bazar area of the city, opposite the existing multilevel parking project of the GMDA. It is also said to have an all-weather working capacity meaning travellers will be able to catch ferries to multiple locations from this point.
Assam removes AFSPA from 1 more district
TheAssamgovernment has withdrawn the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act from one more district, West Karbi Anglong, but retained it in eight other districts bordering Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and one sub-division bordering Manipur for six more months from October 1.
The had withdrawn the Act from 23 districts and one sub-division five months back from April 1.
The eight districts where AFSPA will continue to be in force are Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Charaideo, Sivasagar, Jorhat, Golaghat, Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao and one sub-division, Lakhipur, of Cachar district of the state.
AFSPA was removed from some areas of Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh and now under Amit Shah, more recently, the act was completely removed from 23 districts of Assam, and from areas under 15 Police stations each in Manipur and Nagaland.
Drones to map 700 villages in Assam
TheAssam governmenthas launched the process of mapping 700 odd villages through drones, which in future could help in demarcating borders with other states in the region.
There are around 22,724 villages in Assam, of which 700 had no maps so far and so posed hurdles in executing government projects and buying and selling of land. The project, assisted by theSurvey of India, started this week at No. 1 Singimari village under Hajo revenue circle in lower AssamsKamrup district. Once the neighbouring states settle the inter-state border dispute with Assam, drones will also demarcate the borders of frontier villages once for all, government sources said.
While the Survey of India has given the drones for the exercise, the rest of the work is being done by the Kamrup administration and Assam Survey. The size of No. 1 Singimari is 2.98 sq km, but it may take about a month to complete the survey here.
Maps of a large number of villages were prepared in the state in the 1960s and 70s through the conventional mode, but several hundred, including many in the border areas, remain unmapped. Though survey pillars are lacking in many inter-district, inter-state and international borders in Assam, the plan in the future is to erect these crucial demarcation pillars with a scientific drone survey. But a lot depends on the goodwill of bordering states, a government source said.
The Centre on Thursday signed an agreement with eight tribal militant organisations based inAssamto bring a lasting peace in some areas of the state.The tripartite agreement among the central and state governments and the eight groups, including All Adivasi National Liberation Army, Adivasi Cobra Militant of Assam, Birsa Commando Force, Santhal Tiger Force, and Adivasi People’s Army, was signed here in presence ofUnion HomeMinisterAmit Shahand Assam Chief MinisterHimanta Biswa Sarmaamong others.
The groups are in ceasefire since 2012 and living in designated camps.
Assam to give protected-class tag to Ahoms in tribal blocks, belts
Ahoms, who ruled most of theBrahmaputra valleyin present-dayAssamfor about 600 years till the coming of the British in 1826, will be accorded protected-class status in tribal blocks and belts of the state.
This was announced by chief ministerHimanta Biswa Sarmaduring a meeting with several leading organizations of the Tai-Ahom community.
The All Assam Tribal Sangha, the apex body of the tribal organizations of the state, have been critical about enlisting six more communities in the ST category which it feels will severely hamper the political interests of the existing tribal communities. The Centre introduced the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Amendment) Bill, 2019 in the Rajya Sabha on January 9 the same year with the aim of granting ST status to six communities in Assam, which are currently enjoying OBC status. The names of six communities Koch Rajbongshi, Tai Ahom, Chutia, Matak, Moran and Tea Tribes featured in the Bill for granting ST status.
Amid efforts by the MHA to de-escalate tension along the Assam-Mizoram border, theAssamgovernment on Thursday issued an advisory, asking its people not to travel to the neighbouring state and those working inMizoramto exercise utmost caution.
The commissioner and secretary stated that the travel advisory has been issued after assessing a video footage available withAssam Policewhich shows that many civilians are heavily armed with automatic weapons.
World Bank’s $391-million aid for Assam healthcare and Tripura roads
TheWorld Bank’s Board of executive directors approved a total of $391 million to improve access to high-qualityhealthcareservices and boost economic opportunities forAssamand Tripura.
The World Bank‘s (WB) focus in Assam will be improving the Health-sector”>Health sector while in Tripura, road Infrastructure and adding technology boost to Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture are in the pipeline. The $251 million variable spread loan for Assam and $140 million loan for Tripura are from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), administered by WB, with a maturity of 10.5 years, including a five-year grace period.
The bank observed that Assam has made strides in increasing access to essential healthcare Services, with 87% of Women giving birth in a facility today compared to just 24% in 2005.
94% students failed to avail educational scholarship in Assam during pandemic: Study
A nation-wide study by non-profit organisation, Save the Children-Bal Raksha Bharat, on the impact of Covid-19 on children showed thatAssamhas the maximum number (94%) of students in the country who could not apply for pre and post matric government scholarships during the pandemic.
In terms of Learning continuity and support from the community in both the elementary and pre-school levels, the least effort was found to be in Assam (68%) while the highest was recorded inKarnatakain both categories, according to the report. But efforts by Anganwadi workers to help in the continuity of learning through Home visits were the highest (41%) in Assam.
The state has fared better than most other states in terms of home visits by teachers in elementary Education. It was the highest in Assam (17% instances) among the six states surveyed. The report said around one-fourth (27%) households reported that at least one family member was infected with Covid since 2020 and 65% of the infected households had to face repercussions from neighbours or from the community. The stigmatisation was reported almost nil in Assam.