from Guwahati News, Latest Guwahati News Headlines & Live Updates - Times of India
The Tea Research Association Tocklai, the oldest and the largest tea research institute in the world, on Friday issued detailed advisories on the management of adverse stress conditions due to a drought-like situation in Assam.
Guwahati Commissioner of Police Guwahati MP Gupta, while taking into account the Election Commission’s broad guidelines for the counting day on May 2, on Friday issued a prohibitory order to prevent breach of public peace and tranquility and danger to human life.
With the surge in Covid-19 cases across Assam, the state government has decided to ramp up testing. However, officials of two districts have alleged that they have run out of testing kits due to supply crunch.
The CPI-affiliated Nikhil Bharat Krishak Sabha (NBKS) and members of Students’ Federation of India (SFI) on Friday staged a one-hour protest demanding a free universal mass vaccination programme and lashed out at the government for not expediting the vaccination drives in Assam.
Nearly 35,000 counting officials and agents, who will be on duty on May 2, underwent mandatory Covid-19 tests in Assam on Friday following an order from the the Election Commission.
Unidentified gunmen fired indiscriminately at the office of United People’s Party Liberal’s (UPPL) youth wing in Kokrajhar district in lower Assam, police said on Friday.
Neglected in the sphere of development, the Barak Valley could play a vital role during the formation of the next government in Assam. The results of the recently-held assembly elections would be declared on Sunday.
The BJP and Congress, which are leading the Mitrajot and Mahajot respectively in the state election, were confident of winning and forming the next government in Assam. But most exit polls have predicted the return of the saffron alliance.
Assam has finally got the Centre’s nod to inoculate the 18-44 age-group after the government approved five lakh doses for vaccinating the young.
Two earthquakes of magnitude 3.5 and 3.2 on the Richter scale occurred in Assam's Sonitpur on Friday, said the National Centre for Seismology (NCS).
The Congress’ Assam unit on Thursday filed a complaint with the Election Commission alleging “serious discrepancies” regarding the safety of a strong room and electronic voting machines used in the recently held assembly polls, and demanded an inquiry into the matter.
The whole greater Imphal was declared a containment zone for seven days with immediate effect, suspending all activities and movement, except for emergency and essential services as Covid cases continued to mount in Manipur. The state on Thursday registered 314 new cases, the biggest single day spike since January this year, while five persons succumbed to the virus at different hospitals in Imphal in the past 24 hours.
The vaccination for people aged 18-44 years will be delayed by three weeks in Tripura, as the supply of Covishield doses has been deferred by the manufacturer, director of state’s NHM Dr Siddhartha Shiv Jaiswal said on Thursday.
Assam has sufficient food stock to last over three months even if there is a lockdown. Assam chief secretary Jishnu Barua on Thursday said the state has enough food stock and markets are operating smoothly. “There is no complaint of shortage of food grains and markets are operating in the state. We have enough to meet the requirements,” Barua said, ruling out a “complete lockdown” as of now.
Barely days after the forest fire in Lunglei district was extinguished, a massive forest fire, which originated from South Lungpher South, a small village near the Myanmar border Lawngtlai district in southern Mizoram, engulfed the ‘Phawngpui tlang’ since early Thursday morning.
With only 10-15% of the total Covid cases being hospitalized in the state, the pandemic situation may be well under control for the next two weeks, says the health department.
Scarcity of rain has severely hit production of small tea growers (STGs) in upper Assam, who have been contributing to about half of the state’s tea production. Due to lack of irrigation facilities, thousands of STGs may end up with heavy losses for the second successive year. They lost the valuable first and second flush last year due to the lockdown.
Two neo-Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (neo-JMB) cadres were arrested with arms and fake Indian currency notes (FICN) over Rs 1 lakh by the special branch of Assam police in Dhubri district in lower Assam.
Assam police on Thursday said the third abducted employee of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) is alive and in the custody of United Liberation Front of Asom-Independent (Ulfa-I).
Geologists in Assam have said there is nothing to fear as of now though some fissures have appeared on the ground in different parts of the state after an earthquake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale hit the state on Wednesday morning followed by several aftershocks.
The Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) on Thursday said the total number of injured people in the state has gone up to 12 and no casualties have been reported in last 24 hours.
A day after a strong earthquake of magnitude 6.4 on the Richter Scale rocked the state, the aftershocks were felt on Thursday, too, triggering panic among residents.
A commander of Ulfa (I) was killed in an encounter with police in western Assam’s Bongaigaon district early on Thursday, police said.Based on intelligence inputs that Dwipen Saud, the newly appointed commander of Ulfa (I)’s western command was planning some ‘high profile’ abduction, police confronted him at Besimari under Manikpur police station.
Most exit polls have predicted that the NDA is likely to retain power in Assam thwarting the Congress-led ‘Mahajot’s shot at forming the government. However, a couple of surveys have hinted at a hung assembly.
With only 10-15% of the total Covid cases being hospitalised in Assam, the pandemic situation may be well under control for the next two weeks, says the health department.
With uncertainty looming large on foreign buyers during the second wave of Covid-19, the STGs producing organic tea may face a double blow if they cannot grow the most sought after second flush of tea leaves, which has the highest demand for its aroma and briskness.
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT-G) on Wednesday signed a MoU with the Mehta Family Foundation (MFF), US, to set up the Mehta Family School of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (AI) at IIT-G. The first batch of B.Tech students for this school will be admitted through JEE in the academic year 2021- 22.
At least 20 heinous crimes against women have been reported in Assam since 2012 where women and minors from different tribal communities, including Karbi, Mising and Rabha, were raped. In a few cases, they were also murdered.
A strong earthquake of magnitude 6.4, followed by 10 aftershocks within a span of nine hours, rocked Assam on Wednesday injuring at least 10 persons.
During a special operation, BSF guards seized 60,000 Yaba tablets and arrested three persons involved in smuggling of the illegal tablets from Nilambazar in Karimganj along the Bangladesh border on Tuesday.
Assam on Tuesday imposed night curfew in the state with immediate effect from Tuesday for just five days in view of rising Covid-19 cases in the state. The curfew period is from 8 pm to 5 am daily till May 1, which is the eve of counting of votes for the assembly elections held earlier.
Amid rising cases of Covid-19 in Assam, chief minister Sarbanana Sonowal on Tuesday took stock of the situation in lower Assam districts of Goalpara, Dhubri, South Salmara, Bongaigaon, Kokrajhar and Chirang in Goalpara and asked the deputy commissioners to be proactive in taking new steps to contain the second wave of the pandemic.
All educational institutions, including coaching centres and hostels, here closed on Tuesday, as the daily count of positive cases crossed the 1,000 mark in Kamrup (Metropolitan) district on Monday.
The body of a 78-year-old Covid patient, who died at the Mahendra Mohan Choudhury Hospital here on Tuesday morning, was carried for cremation in an autorickshaw in violation of protocol for the cremation of such bodies.
An earthquake of magnitude 6.4 on the Richter scale rocked Assam and some parts of West Bengal at around 7.51 am on Wednesday. As per National Center for Seismology, the epicentre of the quake was Sonitpur in the state at the depth of 17km. Strong aftershocks were felt near Tezpur. The region felt at least three tremors ranging from 4.1 to 4.3 magnitude, as per reports.
Assam on Tuesday imposed night curfew in the state with immediate effect to prevent gathering of people for a longer time under the shadow of rising fresh Covid-19 cases in the state.
Leading civil society organization of Assam, the Axom Nagarik Samaj (ANS), has urged the government to give people free and universal vaccination amid a raging country-wide second wave of Covid-19.
With no intervention from the health department and the Kamrup (Metro) district administration, ragpickers at the Boragaon dumping site, located adjacent to the Deepor Beel, are working without face masks, sanitizers and social distancing. Many of them don’t even know about vaccination, or basic protocols that need to be followed during a pandemic.
Even as parts of the country struggle to meet the demand for medical oxygen, the Assam government has decided to augment its oxygen generation within the state despite oxygen stocks lying untouched.
Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said Bhutan King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck on Monday issued a royal decree on request from India to permit resumption of construction work of a private oxygen plant, which was hit due to a lockdown in the Himalayan country last year.
In a revised SOP, the Assam government on Monday ordered shutting of all marketplaces, weekly markets, shops in malls, including restaurants, dhabas and eateries, across the state by 6 pm and has made wearing of face masks mandatory even for a single person driving a vehicle.
The months of January and February were hectic for Harish Saikia and Rubul Chetia of Margherita, a small town at the farthest corner of Assam, not far from the Myanmar border.
Police on Sunday said the third abducted employee of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC), who is yet to be rescued, is suspected to be in the custody of the banned militant outfit, the United Liberation Front of Asom-Independent.
With a week to go for the Assam assembly election results, Congress has shifted their candidates out of a luxury hotel in Sonapur on the outskirts of Guwahati amid murmurs of horse-trading.
Assam will double the number of session sites for Covid-19 vaccination, as the state faces a huge challenge to vaccinate about 1.6 crore people between 18 and 45 years after their online registration. This comes as the caseload in the state continued to surge, with 1,844 more testing positive on Sunday, while the daily positivity rate surged to 5.48%. Altogether, 800-1,300 session sites are being operated daily across the state.
Holed up in a resort on the outskirts of Guwahati for four days amid murmurs of horse-trading, Congress candidates in Assam trooped out on Sunday in what appeared to be a response to the surge in Covid cases and a tweet by Rahul Gandhi to put politics aside and stand by the people at a time of crisis.
Massive forest fires have broken out in several parts of Mizoram damaging vast tracts of land and vegetation forcing chief minister Zoramthanga to seek central help, an official of the state disaster management and rehabilitation department said on Sunday.
The state child rights body, Assam State Commission For Protection Of Child Rights (ASCPCR), on Saturday said that the minor was “pregnant” before she was allegedly set ablaze her employers on Thursday.
The Gauhati High Court, while observing that Assamese writer Sikha Sarma had expressed her personal views on the use of the term ‘Swahid/martyr’, granted bail to the 48-year-old writer, who was arrested here on April 6 on charges of sedition and other offences for an alleged Facebook post on security forces after 22 personnel were killed in a Maoist attack in Chhattisgarh.
