04.08.21

Chief ministers of Mizoram and Assam talked about amicably resolving the inter-state border standoff.

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Sources said Union Home minister Amit Shah had asked both states to ensure peace and sort things out amicably. The clashes in which six Assam policemen died had erupted days after Shah discussed the inter-state border disputes in the Northeast with the chief ministers of the region.

The border dispute between Assam and Nagaland dates back to 1963 when Nagaland was carved out of Assam.

Sources said an agreement on the lines of the Assam-Nagaland pact, where the state forces would withdraw and their space would be taken up by neutral force to maintain order, might be reached. Both states will also maintain status quo on the border, not allowing any fresh encroachment or construction till a final decision is taken.

Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj districts of Assam share a border with Mizorams Kolasib, Mamit and Aizawl districts. The border dispute started after Mizoram was carved out of Assam in 1972. The length of the border is 164km.

While Mizoram claims the inner-line reserve forest area as the actual boundary between the two states, Assam relies on the constitutional boundary drawn by the Survey of India in 1933. Mizoram says the 1933 boundary had been imposed on it.

The inner-line reserve forest was notified in 1875 under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation of 1873. It was demarcated by the British to protect tribal land and not allow non-tribals to intrude.

Pig farming crisis in Assam

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Assam is a well known place for all the pork lovers. If we only talk about north-east, there are many star entrepreneurs residing in this area because of pig . Therefore, the state is now the pioneers of pig and pork production making it the largest pork yielding state, not just in the Northeast, but also in India.

The future of pork industry is very bright. This industry has soul potential especially in this region where people consume lots of pork. The birth of many “solopreneurs” or small scale businesses run by a single entity.

It is a mater of satisfaction because Women living in various remote areas earn through this business for their day-to-day expenses like Education, healthcare and other belongings which indirectly contributes in their Empowerment.

Everything was going good, out of nowhere pandemic COVID-19 happened and like as all sort of business, pig industry suffered a lot. The sudden onset of the deadly and highly contagious African Swine Fever (ASF) poses a serious threat to not only the pig industry in the North-eastern states but the entire economy of this region as pig breeding is the principal Source Of Income for the rural inhabitants in Assam and other states of Northeast India region.

The ASF is said to have originated in Tibet; the virus reached India primarily via Arunachal Pradesh and Assam wreaking havoc on the pig industry. It spreads due to close contact with infected pigs, food waste, garbage, and biological carriers like ticks. Thankfully, the disease doesn’t pose any threat to humans but it is highly fatal and contagious for pigs (alive or dead). Usually, the animals symptoms are nausea, diarrhoea, hemorrhaging of the skin, poor appetite and many others.

The major problem at hand for the Assam State Government of late is the ire it faces from the local pig farmers. The reason being the government banning the transportation, buying and selling of Livestock for farming, pork and other meats to prevent transmit of the fatal virus (ASF) to stop the contagion to other North-eastern states.

The joint pig Population of Punjab and Haryana is over 1.5 lakh. Assam’s pig production is the highest in India which is over 21 lakh. The total pig production of the Northeast (excluding Sikkim) is over 42 lakh which is almost 50 per cent of India’s entire pig population. And the entire pig population of the rest of India (excluding Punjab and Haryana) is more than 89 lakh, according to The 20th Livestock Census Of India, 2019.

One can infer that the nations entire pig population is at risk due to fulfilling the interests of a few farmers of Punjab and Haryana. So the feeling of being ignored by the Central government gives us an insight into the heart-wrenching scenario of the helpless pig breeders in the Northeast.

The floods in Assam have undone all the good work to curtail the outbreak of ASF as incessant rains have made it very tough to completely discard the contaminated corpses of the livestock.

It won’t be wrong to say that a complete ban is essential on movement of pigs to the Northeast with immediate effect to prevent it from further escalating into a national crisis along with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The developed world has also struggled to control ASF. Bio-security and culling is the most common method. The right Infrastructure is must to carry out culling efficiently as expenses are there and many farms are in remote areas; so they don’t have access to medical care. There is a plan in place with the right technical ability to check the culling process.

Assam and the other North-eastern states have faced Unemployment since very long time. But the news of pig supply to this region from other states has created a sense of disgrace to all the small-scale pig farmers. Fact of the matter is we are heading towards large-scale unemployment.

Steps should be taken to overcome ASF as well as COVID-19 by government so that up to some extent our indigenous people can survive and this industry can revive it’s own potential in NE region.

Even though theSupreme Court Committee on Road Safetyordered all states to conduct joint inspection of accident spots by the motor vehicle inspectors, police personnel and road engineers, its compliance is lacking in Odisha.

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The state commerce and transport secretaryMadhu Sudan Padhihas asked all district collectors, SPs and regional transport officers to strictly comply with the directive of theSupreme Court Committeeon Road Safety. The transport department has laid Stress on the conduct of joint inspection of accident spots on regular basis from August 1.

The government said proper analysis of the accidents can be done once the Integrated Road Accident Database (IRAD) project in launched in Odisha. TheWorld Bankfunded project, which is being executed by theministry of road transportand highways across the country, is aimed at analysing the causes of road accidents and devising measures to cut down the fatality rate. The ministry already rolled out the IT-based solution in six states Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Nadu and Madhya Pradesh.

K ThalavaipuraminTuticorindistrict ofTamil Naduhas become a model village by achieving 100% Covid vaccination. All the 412 people aged above 18 years in the village located in Kannakattai panchayat have been administered with at least one dose ofCovishieldvaccine.

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The district has 1,405 villages in 403 panchayats that come under 12 blocks, 19 town panchayats, two municipalities and one corporation (Tuticorin).

It is aimed at making them model villages for the respective blocks and local bodies to motivate other villages to reach the mark to stay protected from the pandemic.

The first detailedsurveyof reptiles and amphibians (herpetofauna) in theSilent Valley National Parkhas found 40 species of amphibians and 30 species of reptiles from the landscape despite during heavy rains.

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The survey was conducted in the and its buffer zone between July 22 and 25 this year. With this, the total reptile and amphibian Fauna of Silent Valley has become 55 species each. Wayanad bush frog, leaping frogs, cricket frogs, Malabar vine snake and common house gecko were among the commonly observed species.

Several volunteers from Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Kerala Forest Research Institute, Calicut University and Forestry College participated in the survey.

Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai inducted 29 ministers into his cabinet, retaining most of the faces from his predecessor BSYediyurappa’s ministry.

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The keenly-awaited cabinet expansion comes a week after Bommai took charge as the chief minister of the state, following the resignation of Yediyurappa.

Bommai had earlier said he will not have any deputy chief ministers in his cabinet as per the directions of the high command. Yediyurappa’s younger son and state BJP vice president B Y Vijayendra was not included in the cabinet.

State governorThaawarchand Gehlotadministered oath of office to the new ministers at the Raj Bhavan in Bengaluru.

Telanganas dreams of emerging as a textile hub inched yet another step closer to reality with leading readymade garments exporterGokaldas Imagesall set to put up a 500-machine stitching unit at theSircilla Apparel Park.

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The unit, which will manufacture inner garments for men and Women, will beGokaldasImages first unit in .

The facility will generate EMPLOYMENT for more than 1,000 locals, a majority of whom will be women, said a release issued by the Telangana government.

Pointing out that the Telangana government had accorded top priority to the welfare of weaver community in the state, KTR said that chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao would soon be launching the Neethanna Beema scheme on the lines of the Rythu Beema scheme.

The state government is preparing a policy document to promote professionalism and excellence in logistics services and create employment opportunities.

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The government is planning to ensure integrated, seamless, efficient, reliable, green, sustainable and cost-effective Network in the state. The State Government wanted to ensure multi-modal cargo movement for optimal use of all transport modes, by developing multi-modal transport Infrastructure, including MMLPs.

The state government has constituted a high-levelState Logistic Coordination Committeeheaded by chief secretary. TheSLCCcomprising special chief secretaries and principal secretaries of the key infrastructure departments has been asked to prepare aMaster Planfor State and City centric logistics, providing actionable program strategies to align the state policy with the national logistics policy.

Wild pigs and monkeys are the talk of the day. Goas CM is pondering on declaring wild pigs as vermin, while orchard owners are asserting that monkeys too are a pest. These are two of the many animals involved in the humongous human-wildlife conflict haunting the Indian countryside, a conflict in which thousands of people are killed each year and losses of property run to tens of thousands of crores.

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The roots of this problem go back more than a thousand years with the conquest of Britain by William the Conqueror in 1066. He parcelled Englands land among a handful of feudal Lords. These Lords enclosed the village commons, impoverishing the peasantry. All humans, barring rare exceptions, have indulged in hunting since our species originated as group hunters three lakh years ago. Nonetheless, the domineering British Lords reserved hunting for themselves branding peasants hunting to fill their bellies as poachers and summarily hanging them. The fallout of these authoritarian measures was that Britains forests and wildlife were wiped out by the 14th century.

When the British became Lords of India they were intent on looting its Resources. Their tool in this plunder was the forest department, an agency created to confiscate the tree wealth nurtured by our farmers and forest-dwellers by taking overcommunitylands.
The result mirrored what had happened in Britain and Indias forest wealth was rapidly depleted by the end of 19th century. Goa was spared this fate under rule.

The Portuguese also tried to dismantle community control, but since this led to serious loss of agricultural production and revenue, they permitted its continuance. So, Goa retained its green mantle till the end of Portuguese rule in 1961. On being integrated into the Indian Union the new regime has consistently attempted to take power away from people and dismantle comunidades triggering an erosion of Goas natural heritage.

The foresters with their colonial legacy stepped into Goa clear cutting natural forests to raise exotic tree plantations. With the promulgation of Wildlife Protection Act in 1972 the entire countryside came in the foresters grip with farmers and forest-dwellers becoming victims of conflict with wildlife. Goans too are suffering with wild pigs, monkeys and gaur the major problem species inflicting huge losses of crops and Livestock.

MoU Between Indian Bank and IIT-Bombay

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Indian Bank has gone into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Society for Innovation and (SINE) a drive of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay for stretching out restrictive credit offices to new businesses and MSMEs.

The Bank will stretch out advances of up to 50 crore rupees to these new companies for their functioning capital necessities or acquisition of apparatus and gear.

As the name goes, this drive, which is commonly advantageous for both Bank and IIT, Bombay, will be the springboard for new businesses to understand their desires.

SINE, IIT, Bombay is the precursor in setting up joint R&D with businesses and supporting beginning up hatching.

SINE, IIT, Bombay offers help to the MSME area by giving joint innovative work plans and specialized and monetary help for brooding and speed increase of top of the line innovation items.