ASSAM

The World Bank’s executive board of directors has approved a USD 108 million loan for Assam to improve disaster preparedness and enhance flood forecasting. TheWorld Banksaid the project will benefit around six million people and is part of a larger USD 500 million investment programme for Assam.

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The USD 108 million loan from the International Bank of Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), administered by the , has a maturity of 11.5 years and a grace period of four years.

The Assam Integrated River Basin Management Project will help the state reduce vulnerability to floods and river erosion by building green Infrastructure in the Beki and Buridehing river basins, protecting around 100,000 people,” World Bank said in a statement sent to TOI on Saturday. It added that the project will also help strengthen the state’s response to disasters through improved flood forecasting and accurate early warning systems, including through mobile alerts.
The project will further provide safer evacuation and shelter facilities, including access to Climate-resilient flood shelters, to at least 10,000 people, read the statement, adding that the project will also help government agencies to respond faster during crisis with upgraded state and district emergency operational centers.

‘Less than 25% kids can read simple English in Assam’

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Basic reading ability and arithmetic skills have dropped at the primary level in schools inAssam, with not even 25% students in the age group of five to 16 being able to read simple English sentences, revealed the latest Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2022 published on school education in the country.

ASER last assessed children’s ability in English in 2016. In Assam, 24.3% of the Class V children can read simple English sentences in the 2022 survey. The proportion, however, registered a marginal increase from 22.3% in the 2016 survey. In Assam, of the 50.6% of children in Class VIII, who can read sentences in English, 69.6% of them can also tell the meaning of the sentences.

The survey byPratham Education Foundationestimated Learning loss between 2018 and 2022, showing diverse outcomes. ASER 2022 surveyors went to 26 districts in rural Assam where a total of 15,413 households and 25,502 children in the age group of three to 16 were surveyed.

In Assam, the Percentage of children in Class III in government or private schools, who can read Class II level reading matter, has dropped from 19.9% in 2018 to 17.9% in 2022. Nationally, too, the corresponding figure at the all-India level has declined from 27.3% in 2018 to 20.5% in 2022.

The survey showed nationally, 69.6% of children enrolled in Class VIII in government or private schools, can read at least basic text in 2022, a fall from 73% in 2018. But a reverse trend was visible in Assam in this category. The corresponding figure has increased from 60.8% in 2018 to 68.8% in 2022.

The All-India figure for children in Class III who are able to at least do subtraction dropped from 28.2% in 2018 to 25.9% in 2022. Steep drops of more than 10% points have been visible inMizoram(from 58.8% to 42%). For Assam this figure has dropped from 29.8% in 2018 to 24.5% in 2022.

Assam Govt announces awardees of the Assam State Civilian Awards 2023

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The Assam Government has announced recently the Assam State Civilian Awards for the year 2023 which is bestowed upon eminent personalities and figures for their commendable service towards the Society. CM Himanta Biswa Sarma has announced the same on Twitter and wrote, “As a recognition of their commendable service to the society, we are proud to announce names of 21 personalities chosen for the Assam State Civilian Awards 2023.”

The Assam State Civilian Award has three categories— Assam Baibhav Award, Assam Saurav Award and Assam Gaurav Award.

Assam most improved state in Niti Aayog’s health index

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Assamhas emerged as the top state which has made the maximum improvement among larger states in overall performance and is also among the top three most improved states in incremental performance insHealth indexfor 2019-20, which was released.

The report stated, Among the larger states, only four states improved their Base Year (2018-19) rank in the Reference Year (2019-20). The most significant progress was observed in Assam as it improved its ranking by three positions, from fifteenth to twelfth.

Assams total score has gone up from 43.39 in Base Year (2018-19) to 47.74 in Reference Year (2019-20).KeralaandTamil Naduoccupy the first and second ranks in the overall performance scores of 82.20 and 72.42 respectively.

Among the smaller states, Mizoram has jumped up by two places to capture the top slot. Meghalaya too has jumped by two places from 7th to 5th while Tripura, Manipur andArunachal Pradeshdropped their rank by one place each.

Chief minister Himanta BiswaSarmaand his Maharashtra counterpart EknathShindehave agreed to build anAssamBhavan anda Maharashtra Sadanin Maharashtra and Assam, respectively, as a goodwill gesture between the two governments.

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Shinde, along with his ministers, MPs and their families, arrived in Guwahati on Saturday to offer prayers at the Kamakhya Temple here. Shindes visit came nearly five months after he led a rebellion from Guwahati to topple the Uddhav Thackeray government. All of them returned to Mumbai in a chartered flight from Guwahati airport.

Shinde and the party leaders attended a a dinner hosted by Sarma on Saturday evening that lasted for more than two hours. Some of the ministers from the Assam cabinet were also present.

17 smart city projects for Guwahati at 887 crore soon

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The Guwahati Smart City Limited (GSCL) will begin 17 projects, including the Brahmaputra riverfront development and integrated traffic management system, soon in the city at a cost of over Rs 887 crore.

A number of offices like the Kamrup (Metro) deputy commissioners office, Guwahati Police commissioners office and the Guwahati commissioners office will have to be shifted from their present location to different parts of the city to accommodate the riverfront makeover work. The government has already identified new locations and preliminary work is on.

Under the integrated traffic management system, automatic traffic signal lights andCCTVcameras to monitor traffic rule violations will be installed across the city. This was announced by the urban affairs ministerAshok Singhallast week.

The development of the Borsola beel was the first project on the GSCL list. A total allotment of Rs 80 crore was made for the development of the beel, but the project was shelved.

Assam destroys over 2,400 rhino horns to bust medicinal myth

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On World Rhino Day on Wednesday,Assamset on fire a large stockpile of over 2,400 rhino horns, which were extracted from naturally or accidentally dead rhinos as well as those confiscated from arrested poachers and stored for over four decades in government treasuries, to stop the illegal trade in rhino horns.

Chief minister Himanta BiswaSarma, who personally supervised the event atBokakhatamid the chanting of Vedic rituals and blowing of conches, said they wanted to prove the common belief that rhino horns have miraculous medicinal properties is a myth. The horns, extracted by poachers after killing the animals, have a huge illegal market in several countries, especially Vietnam, where they are prized for their aphrodisiac qualities and command a high price.

Selling these horns would propagate the myth that rhino horns have medicinal values, which the wants to bust. As trade in human organs cannot be allowed, the state government is also committed towards not encouraging trade in wildlife animal parts, the chief minister added.

Acting on a cabinet decision, 2,479 horns were consigned to the flame. About 94 horns will be showcased in a museum to be set up at the Kaziranga National Park, while 29 will be kept for court cases.

Sarma added that the government has taken a zero-Tolerance policy towards poaching of wildlife. The one-horned rhinoceros Population in Assam has increased from 1,672 in 1999 to 2,652 as per the 2018 census, which has contributed to the greater one-horned rhino moving up the conservation ladder from the Endangered to the Vulnerable tag under the IUCN Red List of threatened species.

Despite the Union governments alert to states to prepare for pediatric care and NITI Aayogs advisory to make preparations for 23% hospitalisation in case of a surge in Covid cases shortly, the state government is more focused on reopening schools. The target of building up Covid infrastructure for children in the state also looks doubtful.The state government had planned 1,000 Paediatric Intensive Care Units (PICU), out of which the minimum goal was 10 in each district. But the state health department and the National Health Mission officials could not say anything on the progress of achieving this goal set in June.

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Assam is going ahead to complete 10 PICU in each of the district hospitals to treat children below 18 years, while the corresponding figure set for all medical colleges is a minimum of 30. However, the target is yet to be achieved.

Health department sources said five to eight per cent of the total Covid infections in the first and second wave were children in the state. But considering the warning from the Centre, this figure may go up further in a possible third-wave strike. During the fourth nationwide sero survey for antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, the Indian Council of Medical Research (Icmr) detected sero prevalence in children on a par with adults in Assam. During the study carried out in the second wave, children between six and 14 years were found to have similar sero prevalence in the range of 39.4% to 52.2%, as in adults.

Assam: Expert calls ‘fall’ in fertility rate of Muslim women ‘doubtful’

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An expert has questioned the findings of a National Family Health Survey (NFHS) which showed a fall in totalfertility rateofMuslim womeninAssam.

Speaking at a webinar organised by Janasankhya Samadhan FoundationUttar PurbaKhetra on “Population Explosion and Future of Assam” on the eve of World Population Day on Tuesday in association with University Students’ Union, professor Kalita said, “Census data and sample survey data vary. While census data is collected from survey of every household, sample survey data is based on located or identified samples. So the data reflected for various parameters with regard to Total Fertility Rate of Muslim Women shown National Family Health Survey (NFHS) as decreasing is doubtful.”

To substantiate, professor Kalita said if person has four wives, each giving birth to four to five children, are not taken into consideration during the sample survey. “Under the sample survey, only one or the last woman is considered,” he said.

He said teenage marriage amongst Muslims is 14.9, whereas, amongst Hindus, it is only 4.5 per cent. In Barpeta district, teenage marriage among Muslims is around 14 per cent, in Bongaigaon district it is 15 per cent while in Dhubri district it is 22 per cent, 16 per cent each in Darrang and Hojai districts, 23 per cent in South salmara district and 15 per cent in Nagaon district.

Delayed hospitalisation linked to high death toll in Assam

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Delayed hospitalization of Covid patients from some of the designated governmentCovid Care Centres(CCCs) is among the reasons for the high death toll of 70-80 people succumbing to the virus or Covid-related complications every day inAssam.

This despite the Covid situation improving in the state marginally with the latest positivity rate further declining to 5.57% even as the total cumulative Covid tests crossed the one crore mark on Saturday, with 1,00,89,714 tests since last year.

The relatively high death count despite the falling number of cases is being attributed to the lack of timely Oxygen monitoring of patients in the CCCs.

Surprisingly, some of the cases came from CCCs managed by the .

Despite cases being reported from CCCs at the point of no return, the senior Health official said that in the institutional isolation (CCCs) the oxygen concentration is being checked at least three times a day.