NORTH-EASTERN STATES

Union minister Devusinh Chauhan on Saturday said the Centre is exploring new technologies to overcome challenges of geographical barrier in northeastern states to strengthen Telecommunication Services in the region.

Chauhan, the minister of state for communications, said the government is keen to bring all villages under the telecom Network.

There is no dearth of funds for strengthening the telecom sector. Coverage of the telecom network will be enhanced in the state and also in the northeast region.

In these states, the coverage of both doses of the vaccine is unsatisfactory in the elderly Population above 60 years of age that is most vulnerable to SARS-CoV2 infection as well as fatality due to it, the Health secretaryRajesh Bhushanunderlined during a meeting with these states to review the vaccination status.

The Centre advised states to earmark doses, days and target the completion of the vaccination exercise for people above 60 years of age as the vulnerability of these people to Covid-19 makes this exercise of prime importance.

Meanwhile, the states and union territories were also asked to quickly saturate the first dose coverage among the 18-plus population.

A total of 68.33 crore doses of Covid-Vaccines were administered till Saturday. Nearly 56% of the 94 crore adult population has received at least one dose of the vaccines, whereas around 17% of adults of age 18 years and above have got both doses.

The Centre asked states to closely monitor the stock from state-level stores to cold chain points, check rational distribution and restrict vaccine wastage to below 2%. States have been asked to update data on eVIN (electronic vaccine intelligence Network) on a daily basis.
Bhushan chaired a review meeting with representatives from Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Uttarakhand and the northeastern states — Arunachal Pradesh,Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Tripura.

According to the survey, the current use of smoking tobacco has declined from 8.1% in 2003 to 7.3% in 2019 in the country. Significantly, smokeless tobacco consumption, too, has declined from 14% in 2003 to 4.1% in 2019. But even as the national Average for tobacco consumption in the age group of 13-15 years is about 8.5% for any type of tobacco use in India, the northeastern states presented a gloomy picture.

Despite being in a better position with 11.9% tobacco consumption in the surveyed age group, Assam is also above the national average for both smoking and smokeless tobacco. Uttar Pradesh at 22.9% and Uttarakhand at 18.5% are ahead of Assam. The lowest prevalence of tobacco consumption in the same age group was found in Himachal Pradesh (1.1%), Karnataka (1.2%), Goa (2.4%) and Kerala (3.2%).

Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture has been affected in Manipur as many farmers are unable to tend to their fields due to the ongoing ethnic violence, and if the situation does not improve, food production in the northeastern state will be affected, a senior official said on Wednesday. Department of Agriculture Director N Gojendro told that farmers were unable to cultivate at least 5,127 hectares of agricultural land, leading to a loss of 15,437.23 metric tonnes till June 28.

Adding to our woes is the rainfall deficiency this year. Last year, heavy rain had flooded paddy fields in May-end, whereas this year, there has been less rain. The scorching sun dries the ground, making cultivation difficult,” he said. ‘Meitei Rice’ needs a lot of water for cultivation. It has high starch and Carbohydrates. Chief Minister N Biren Singh had earlier said that 2,000 state forces have been deployed in sensitive areas to patrol and provide security to farmers during cultivation.

The projected number of cancer cases for the year 2025 is estimated to be 57,131 (30,985 in males and 26,146 in females). The situation is even more alarming in Assam where another Icmr estimate shows that one in four men and one in six Women of the state are at the risk of developing cancer, the highest in India, Dr B Borooah Cancer Institute (BBCI) director, Dr Amal Chandra Kataki, said during anWorld Cancer Dayevent.

The ICMR-NCDIR report revealed that the age adjusted incidence rate (AAR) used for comparing cancer incidences in different Population for all cancer sites is the highest among males in Aizawl district (269.4 per 100,000 population) and females in Papumpare district in Arunachal Pradesh (219.8 per 100,000 population).

Removal of the war memorial of the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War from the heart ofAgartalahas sparked strong reactions acrossTripura. Opposition parties, historians, intellectuals, poets, writers and social activists raised their voices against the move of the AgartalaSmart CityMission, demanding the memorials re-installation as well as bringing back all historical monuments that have been affected by the its works.

The activists ofTripura Cultural Coordination Committeealleged that more than Rs 700 crore have been invested for renovation work, destroying the heritage of the citys socio-cultural icons in the name of making the city smart.

Amidst the demands and agitations of various parties including the Voice of the People’s Party (VPP), the Meghalaya government on Thursday announced the constitution of an expert committee to review the 1972 reservation policy.

Chief Secretary D. P. Wahlang issued a notification saying that the expert committee would review the state reservation policy by obtaining views from all stakeholders including the , NGOs, and civil Society organisations (CSOs).

The Chairperson and members of the committee shall consist of experts in constitutional law, economics, Sociology, demographic Studies and related fields which shall be notified by the State Government.

The expert committee shall undertake a review of the State Reservation Policy by obtaining views from all stakeholders and by conducting field visits to all parts of the state, the notification said.

An all-party committee on reservation roster system and reservation policy on Wednesday also suggested appointing an expert committee to review the 51-year-old reservation policy.

According to the 2011 Census, Christians constitute 74.59 per cent of Meghalaya’s 29.67 lakh populations, while Muslims and Hindus constitute 4.4 per cent and 11.53 per cent, respectively.

Meghalaya’s 51-year-old job reservation policy entails 80 per cent quota for three matrilineal communities – Garo, Khasi, and Jaintia. The quota is divided equally between the Garos and the Khasi-Jaintia people together. Another 5 per cent is reserved for ‘other minor tribes’, while 15 per cent is reserved for people in the unreserved categories.

The Garo tribals are educationally more backward and numerically lower than the Khasi-Jaintia people, and they have hardly been able to get the full benefit of the reservation of 40 per cent.

TheTripuragovernment has started house-to-house survey inAgartala (AMC) areas to find out Covid patients.

Thehealth departmenthas been asked to set up an adequate number oftesting centresin each ward and devise the mechanism to bring all symptomatic and suspected cases under Covid testing to contain further spread of the disease.

The survey team comprises community-level Health workers, anganwadi workers, representatives of civil administration and AMC. They have been asked to finish the survey work within three days and accordingly the testing of the suspected persons will be carried out in the specific locations.

The Nagaland Police has made COVID-19 vaccination mandatory for all its personnel. The office of the State DGP today directed all unit commanders to ensure that all personnel under them are vaccinated.

It pointed out that vaccination is a time-tested method to manage pandemics. Humanity defeated many diseases like smallpox, measles, polio, etc., through vaccination.