The Assam Tribune Analysis

23-11-2020

ARTICLE CONTENTS

Ayurveda PG practitioners to be trained on surgical procedures

NASA rover helps scientists find signs of megafloods on Mars

Artificial incubation facility for vultures

Naval drill

RBI record

COVID-19 vaccine distribution faces logistics challenges’

RBI sets world record with over 1 mn Twitter followers

GST Council panel for 2-pronged strategy to curb fake invoices

Automation of cargo clearance processes to improve trade facilitation: ADB

RBI record

EDITORIAL DISCUSSION

Covid-19 and our immediate future

Miles to go

Decongesting Guwahati city

GENERAL STUDIES 2: GOVERANCE

1. Ayurveda PG practitioners to be trained on surgical procedures

The government has issued a notification which authorises postgraduate practitioners in

specified streams of Ayurveda to be trained to perform surgical procedures such as excisions of

benign tumours, amputation of gangrene, nasal and cataract surgeries.

The notification by the Central Council of Indian Medicine, a statutory body under the AYUSH

Ministry to regulate the Indian systems of medicine, listed 39 general surgery procedures and

around 19 procedures involving the eye, ear, nose and throat by amending the Indian Medicine

Central Council (Post Graduate Ayurveda Education) Regulations, 2016.

“These regulations may be called the Indian Medicine Central Council (Post Graduate Ayurveda

Education) Amendment Regulations, 2020. “In the Indian Medicine Central Council (Post

Graduate Ayurveda Education) Regulations, 2016, in regulation 10, after sub-regulation (8), the

following sub-regulation shall be inserted, namely – during the period of study, the PG scholar

of Shalya and Shalakya shall be practically trained to acquaint with as well as to independently

perform the following activities so that after completion of his PG degree, he is able to perform

the following procedures independently,” it read.

AYUSH Ministry Secretary Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha said the notification by the CCIM does not

amount to any policy deviation or any new decision. “This notification is more of the nature of a

clarification. It streamlines the existing regulation relating to post graduate education in

Ayurveda with respect to the specified procedures. “Further, the notification does not open up

the entire field of surgery to Ayurveda practitioners and specifies a set of surgical procedures. It

outlines that not all postgraduates of Ayurveda can perform these procedures. Only those

specialized in Shalya and Shalakya are allowed to perform these surgical procedures,” Kotecha

said.

Chairman of Board of Governors, CCIM, Vaidya Jayant Devpujari clarified that these surgical

procedures are being performed in Ayurveda institutes for over 20 years and the notification

legalises them. “The purpose of bringing out the notification is also to set boundaries by

specifying the list of procedures so that practitioners restrict themselves to the set of surgical

procedures as mentioned in the regulation,” Devpujari said.

According to the November 20 gazette notification, the procedures listed include removal of

metallic and non-metallic foreign bodies from non-vital organs, excision of simple cyst or benign

tumours (lipoma, fibroma, schwanoma, etc.) of non-vital organs, amputation of gangrene,

traumatic wound management, foreign body removal from stomach, squint surgery, cataract

surgery and functional endoscopic sinus surgery.

GENERAL STUDIES 3: SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

1. NASA rover helps scientists find signs of megafloods on Mars

Analysing data collected by NASA’s Curiosity rover, scientists have found that floods of

unimaginable magnitude once washed through Gale Crater on Mars’ equator around four

billion years ago.

The finding, published in the journal Scientific Reports, hints at the possibility that life may have

existed on the Red Planet. The raging megaflood – likely touched off by the heat of a meteoritic

impact, which unleashed ice stored on the Martian surface – set up gigantic ripples that are

telltale geologic structuresfamiliar to scientists on Earth.

“We identified megafloods for the first time using detailed sedimentological data observed by

the rover Curiosity,” said co-author Alberto Fairen, a visiting astrobiologist at Cornell University,

Ithaca, New York.

“Deposits left behind by megafloods had not been previously identified with orbiter data.”

As is the case on Earth, geological features, including the work of water and wind have been

frozen in time on Mars for about four billion years. These features convey processes that

shaped the surface of both planets in the past. This case includes the occurrence of giant

waveshaped features in sedimentary layers of Gale crater, often called “megaripples” or

antidunes that are about 30-feet high and spaced about 450 feet apart, according to study lead

author Ezat Heydari, Professor of Physics at Jackson State University in Mississippi, US.

The antidunes are indicative of flowing megafloods at the bottom of Mars’ Gale Crater about

four billion years ago, which are identical to the features formed by melting ice on Earth about

two million years ago, Heydari said.

GENERAL STUDIES 3: ENVIRONMENT

1. Artificial incubation facility for vultures

The Madhya Pradesh forest department is thinking of developing an artificial incubation facility

for vultures at a conservation centre here to revive the population of these scavenging birds, an

official said.

As per the bird count done in Madhya Pradesh in 2019, the state had 8,397 vultures, the

highest among other states in India, Bhopal-based Van Vihar National Park’s deputy director AK

Jain told PTI.

The population of vultures, which are of great value as scavengers as they eat dead animals,

declined alarmingly about two decades ago and they faced the threat of extinction, he said.

A vulture conservation and breeding centre came up in Kerwa area here in 2013 and it is being

run jointly by the Bombay Natural History Society and the MP government.

“About three or four rooms would be needed for the artificial egg incubation facility at a cost of

around Rs 4 to 5 lakh. We are seriously thinking of developing the facility at the conservation

and breeding centre,” Jain said.

GENERAL STUDIES 3: SECURITY

1. Naval drill

The Indian Navy is participating in the twoday trilateral maritime exercise SITMEX-20 in the

Andaman Sea along with the navies of Singapore and Thailand that began on Sunday, senior

military officials here said.

GENERAL STUDIES 3: ECONOMY

1. RBI record

With one million Twitter followers, the RBI has become the first central bank in the world to

reach this milestone. The RBI has beaten the US Federal Reserve and European Central Bank on

Twitter by emerging as the most popular central bank.

2. COVID-19 vaccine distribution faces logistics challenges’

Observing that immunisation against COVID-19 involved several challenges, including logistics

and supply chain for distribution of vaccines in the country, an expert has said there cannot be

any lowering of guard on prevention of virus spread till a robust vaccine was available.

While the government would do its job on procurement and distribution, the focus should be

on keeping the spread under check and studying the virus for having more effective antiviral

drugs till a vaccine was available, said Dr Rakesh Mishra, Director of the CSIR-Centre for Cellular

and Molecular Biology (CCMB).

Besides production, the other challenges for COVID-19 vaccine distribution were logistics and

supply. There is no adult vaccination programme in the country except tetanus for pregnant

women. Even immunisation of children had its share of difficulties with many people not

vaccinating, he said.

Most vaccines may require at least two doses, possibly the second one to be administered after

a certain number of days, which increases difficulties in logistics and supply.

The vaccines of some companies require a minus 70 degree cold chain which would be tough to

arrange beyond major cities, Mishra said.

In addition, a major concern was that it would not be known till two or three years whether a

vaccine was really good or not for long term protection, he noted. Meanwhile, the CSIR is in the

process of developing a proof of concept for a vaccine candidate for COVID- 19 to be handed

over to Aurobindo Pharma for further process if it shows initial promise.

The CSIR is aiming to reach “some conclusion” in the endeavour in about three months, Mishra

said. “We are aiming that in about three months, we should reach some conclusion. So, we are

trying three different platforms, slightly different compared to what many others are trying.

Even if one or two of them are good, then Aurobindo will take it further for safety and trial.

Maybe, after 3-4 months, we will know which one of these if any, we can take further,” he said.

On some pharma companies claiming efficacy of 90 per cent about the vaccines developed by

them for COVID-19 and whether they had adequate time to conduct the tests, he said data

should be published on the tests. The size of the data appears to be small, he said.

The protection from the virus should before a long time then only it is of real use, Mishra

added. Presently, at least three vaccine candidates are under clinical trials in the country. The

Serum Institute of India is conducting phase-3 trial of the Oxford vaccine, while that of the

indigenously developed COVAXIN of Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech and the Indian Council of

Medical Research (ICMR) has already begun.

Dr Reddy’s Laboratories would conduct the phase 2/3 human clinical trials of the Russian

COVID-19 vaccine, Sputnik V, in India. Also, the Biological E Ltd has started Phase I/II clinical trial

of its COVID-19 sub-unit vaccine candidate in India.

3. RBI sets world record with over 1 mn Twitter followers

In a first among central banks, the Reserve Bank of India has become the first monetary

authority in the world to have more than 1 million followers on its official Twitter handle.

Despite much less monetary firepower, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has beaten the world’s

most powerful central banks – the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank – on

Twitter by a wide margin, emerging as the most popular central bank on the microblogging site

with over 1 million followers.

As of today, the RBI handle is followed by as many as 10,00,513 people around the world. The

achievement is impressive as the 85-year-old Reserve Bank was also a latecomer to the world

of Twitter as it created the account only in January 2012.

According to the latest information available on the RBI’s Twitter handle ‘@RBI’, the number of

followers has increased from 9.66 lakh on September 27, 2020 to over 10 lakh as of today. “RBI

Twitter account reaches 1 million followers today. A new milestone. Congratulations to all my

colleagues in RBI,” Governor Shaktikanta Das tweeted today.

At the second slot is the much lesser known central bank of Mexico (Banco de Mexico) with

7.74 lakh followers, followed by Bank of Indonesia (7.57 lakh). The US Federal Reserve, the

world’s most powerful central bank, has only 6.77 lakh followers, placing it at a distant fourth

slot.

With 5.91 lakh followers the Frankfurt-headquartered European Central Bank, the second most

powerful monetary authority in the world, comes fifth.

At the sixth rank is the Central Bank of Brazil with 3.82 lakh followers and the Bank of England is

at a distant seventh with 3.17 lakh followers. The Bank of Canada comes next with 1.80 lakh

and the State Bank of Pakistan is the ninth largest with 1.16 lakh followers. At the tenth slot is

the Reserve Bank of Australia with 49,200 followers.

The central bank of France has just about 37,100 followers, while the Deutsche Bundesbank has

around 30,000 followers. The third most powerful monetary authority, the Bank of Japan, has

only 28,900 followers on its Twitter account.

The US Fed joined Twitter in March 2009, while the ECB has been active on the microblogging

site since October 2009.

4. GST Council panel for 2-pronged strategy to curb fake invoices

The Law Committee of the GST Council has suggested a two-pronged strategy to tackle the

issue of fake invoices, sources said. According to people in the know, the panel has

recommended that new or fresh registrations in GST may adopt an Aadhaar-like registration

process under which new registration can be done online with live photo and use of biometrics

with due verification of documents.

Such facilities can be provided at banks, post offices, and GST Seva Kendras (GSK), just like the

Passport Seva Kendras or the Aadhaar Seva Kendras. The GSKs can work on the pattern of the

Passport Seva Kendras to provide new registration facilities with required checks on fake

registration.

According to sources, the Law Committee has suggested that a fresh registrant must go for

compulsory physical verification and personal identification in case he or she opts for non-

Aadhaar authentication-based registration process and does not have income tax

returnsupported adequate financial capability In such a case, he or she may have to submit a

recommendation letter by two taxpayers of adequate reliability.

Further, also, if on the basis of document-supported credentials, a registrant or dealer falls in

“trustworthy” category, then he or she can be given registration within seven working days.

If he or she is not in the “trustworthy” category, then conditional registration shall be given

within 60 working days only after physical verification of the place of business wherein in such

cases input tax credit to their buyers shall be allowed only after filing of their return and the

dealers would be required to pay certain portion of their liability in cash instead of paying 100

per cent tax through ITC.

According to sources in the Department of Revenue, to weed out existing fake dealers from the

GST system, the panel proposed full application of the Business Intelligence and Fraud Analytics

(BIFA) tool for precise identification riskier dealers based on the riskier input supply chain and

outward supply chain, abnormal taxpayer behaviour in terms of ITC availment, tax payment for

catching fake dealer and taking appropriate action, including enforcement.

It has suggested suspension of first lot of riskier traders and identification of such taxpayers on

the basis of significant criterion including non-filing of return for six months, said sources,

adding that the committee underlined the fact that there are about 6 lakh dormant registrants

in GST.

It further proposed that no income tax credential be given if 99 per cent tax is paid through ITC.

There were about 35,000 such dealers who were given registration in 2018-19 and 2019-20,

having GST liability of more than Rs 50 lakh (yearly), and more than 99 per cent tax paid

through ITC and have no credential in income tax (did not pay income tax even of Rs 1 lakh in

last three years).

Sources said that in the Law Committee’s opinion, once a dealer is suspended, he has to explain

the discrepancy within the prescribed time limit for revocation of suspension.

5. Automation of cargo clearance processes to improve trade facilitation: ADB

Expeditious cargo clearance with minimal physical interface for an efficient supply chain and quick

adoption to digitisation would help countries within South Asia to improve trade amidst the

pandemic even as the national lockdowns have begun to ease, according to an Asian Development

Bank (ADB) blog post.

The pandemic has underscored the importance of trade facilitation within South Asia and with the

region’s neighbours, said the blog written by Aileen Pangilinan and SatishReddy.

“As national lockdowns begin to ease and supply chains resume operation, difficulties in cargo

movement and clearance processes are expected to linger. “A look at the South Asia Subregional

Economic Cooperation (SASEC) countries – Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal,

and Sri Lanka – shows the importance to recovery of effective and modern trade facilitation

measures,” they said in the blog.

Trade facilitation – the measures to promote and ease trade – was already under way in SASEC

countries when the pandemic started.

However, the customs agencies during the height of COVID-19 found it difficult to position staff at

clearance locations, said the blog writers.

Thus border crossings couldn’t function efficiently while the private sector, including importers,

exporters, customs brokers and freight forwarders, struggled to mobilise staff, as per the blog. They

also experienced difficulties meeting clearance requirements like providing original documents and

paying duties at the bank. These bottlenecks affected the movement of goods and services,

including time-sensitive products like medicine and relief goods, it added.

“Automation of clearance processes, which should have played a greater role in helping cargo

move seamlessly across borders, with limited need for human contact, affords an example of the

gaps in trade facilitation progress. The writers said there is inadequate digitisation in many of the

cross-border regulatory agencies as well as lack of digital connectivity among these agencies, ports

and terminal operators and shipping lines that has further hindered flow of cargo.

The pandemic has underscored the importance of trade facilitation, particularly for responding to

crisis. “The need to clear cargo expeditiously, with minimum physical interface and to maintain

efficient supply chains, has highlighted the need for an enhanced trade facilitation environment,”

they said.

Besides, the pandemic has highlighted the need to institutionalise business continuity protocols,

crossborder pandemic management protocols, and workplace and staff safety procedures.

Following advisory by SASEC Secretariat outlining measures to cope with the pandemic and

facilitate trade, countries in the region simplified customs and regulatory procedures, waived the

need for paper documents and reduced the scale of customs involvement. Some also waived tariffs

and fees on essential goods, deferring the payments and waiving terminal charges.

GENERAL STUDIES 5: ASSAM POLITY

6. RBI record

No decision yet on making Foreigners’ Tribunals operational. Though Assam Government has

renewed the term of the services of the members appointed for the proposed Foreigners’ Tribunals

by one more year, no decision has been taken on making the tribunals operational. Assam

Government had decided to set up 200 new Foreigners’ Tribunals and members for the same were

selected by the Gauhati High Court.

The members were appointed on contract basis for a period of one year and their services have

been extended for another year recently. But it is still not decided when the new tribunals would

be made operational. Official sources told The Assam Tribune that no decision has yet been taken

as to when the other staff selected for appointment in the new tribunals would be appointed.

Sources said that the decision to set up new tribunals was taken in view of the fact that the

persons, whose names were left out of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), would file appeals

before the Foreigners Tribunals. But such people can file appeals only after they receive the

rejection slips from the office of the State NRC Coordinator with details of the causes of rejection.

But as the rejection slips have not yet been issued, the Government has postponed the process of

making the tribunals operational. “The Government is ready to make the new tribunals operational

as soon as the NRC Coordinator’s Office starts issuing rejection slips to those whose names were

not included in the NRC. But there is no point in incurring extra expenditure till the rejection slips

are issued,” sources added.

The final NRC was published more than a year back and names of more than 19 lakh applicants

were not included in it. But the process of issuing rejection slips was delayed because of the COVID-

19 pandemic and the date for issuing the same has not yet been announced.

Sources said that the decision to extend the services of the members appointed for the new

tribunals for another year was taken because it would be difficult to go through the selection

process afresh once the NRC Coordinator’s Office starts issuing the rejection slips. The members

appointed for the new tribunals are now attached with the existing tribunals so that they can

gather adequate experience.

It may be mentioned here that the State Government is not satisfied with the final NRC and

approached the Supreme Court with the appeal that there should be 20 per cent reverification in

the districts bordering Bangladesh and 10 per cent in other districts.

The All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) has also called for reverification of the NRC, but the decision

of the Court is awaited.

EDITORIAL DISCUSSION

GENERAL STUDIES 2: GOVERANCE

1. Covid-19 and our immediate future

Covid-19 has run roughshod over every facet of our existence and it will take some considerable

amount of time before we get to experience any semblance of normalcy. Fortunately, there has

been a steady decline in the rate of infection and the number of cases recorded each day has

witnessed a significant slump in many States as compared to the initial few months of the ravaging

menace. However, it must be borne in mind that the catastrophe is far from over and there is

absolutely no room for complacency as far as regulating the disease is concerned.

Scientists have warned that India might experience a second wave of Covid-19 this fall as the

mercury begins to dip creating conditions for further spread of the disease, with Delhi perhaps

currently witnessing the same. In the United Kingdom, there has been a 40% hike in cases since the

start of winter and the government there has resorted to further lockdown in view of the

deteriorating situation and mammoth rise in Covid cases.

Here in India, even though many of the States are leaning towards a stable curve, it would be

foolhardy to turn a blind eye to the massive spurt in Covid cases in the States of Haryana, Rajasthan

and Delhi, mostly owing to significant dip in mercury levels. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) had

been prescient in genuflecting a potential worsening of air quality post-Diwali celebration across

the country.

The constant exhortations and warnings about the dangers of bursting crackers being bull horned

into public consciousness have had a positive impact with people disavowing grandiose celebration

this time around. And yet an overzealous group, albeit small, was seen flouting government

directives with impunity and revelling in the festive fervour with reckless abandon.

Post Diwali, the air quality index (AQI) is hovering around 440 in Delhi compounded by other

factors such as stubble burning, dipping mercury and vehicular pollution.

Fairly recently, the Central Government introduced a new law through an ordinance to curb air

pollution in Delhi giving the newlyformed committee stronger teeth to reprimand and penalize

those in contravention of the laid out recommendations. However, stubble burning in parts of

Punjab and Haryana is an annual phenomenon and how far such laws would be effective are yet to

be seen. Infuriated by the controversial farm laws that are being perceived as ‘anti-farmer’, farmers

of Haryana and Punjab have only intensified stubble burning which can further deteriorate air

quality.

The air quality in Guwahati is now marked as moderate but is likely to slip further as the winter

season intensifies. The Covid-19 positivity rate in Assam has dropped significantly to 1% alleviating

the caseload across various hospitals and steadying the disease curve to a manageable level. This,

however, should not be seen as a free pass to throw caution to the wind and disregard Covid

protocols.

With winter approaching, there is every possibility of a second wave which has the potential to

throw life out of kilter, snuffing off livelihoods and wreaking havoc to the already tattered

economy. There has been a wave of political rallies organized by various political parties in view of

the upcoming Assembly election in Assam and the election in the Bodo Territorial Region

facilitating large congregations, a perfect springboard to be super spreaders of Covid-19. The

Assembly elections are still a few months away and it will be sagacious to slack up on the

campaigning momentum at least for another one month or so.

The likelihood of a vaccine hitting the scene, a panacea for this dreaded ill, has rekindled hopes of a

better future in India as well as around the world. The vaccines being readied by Pfizer and

BioNTech have demonstrated 92% efficacy in Phase III clinical study and may be rolled out very

soon.

However, in India, the unavailability of cold chains that can maintain temperatures as low as -70oC

and other logistical issues are being viewed as major challenges posing the healthcare system.

Allaying such fears, AIIMS director Randeep Guleria has said that Indian vaccines have a lot of hope

given their good safety signal and immunogenicity and also dovetails with the current storage

infrastructure.

The director of ICMR, Dr Rajni Kant, has warned that the idea of herd immunity in India is a pipe

dream given India’s population and any complacency in adhering to Covid norms could have

disastrous consequences.

The Government should be vigilant and see to it that people are following basic safety norms such

as wearing masks, using sanitizers and maintaining physical distance. The exhaustion that has

washed over the general public due to prolonged lockdown is yet to wane and there is very little

appetite among the masses to withstand another setback in the form of a lockdown, an inevitable

consequence of a Covid peak.

It is prudent to exercise maximum restraint and also create awareness about the severe

repercussions of a laidback attitude. A little restraint and caution can save us a great deal of pain

and misery and help us carry on with our lives without further upheavals.

GENERAL STUDIES 3: ENVIRONMENT

1. Miles to go

While addressing students at the convocation ceremony of the Pandit Deendayal Petroleum

University in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted that India has set a

target of cutting down its carbon footprint by 30% to 35%. In 2015, at the Paris Agreement, the

world decided to limit global warming to two degree Celsius below pre-industrial levels and to try

and limit the increase to 1.5 degree Celsius.

India’s endeavour to reduce its carbon footprints, which refers to the total greenhouse gas

emissions released by individuals, activities or organizations in a country, accords with its pledge

made in the Paris summit and is designed as our nation’s contribution towards reducing emission

of greenhouse gases and global warming.

To put it rudimentarily, reduction of carbon footprints can be achieved only through decrease in

the use of fossil fuels and more reliance on green, non-polluting energy. One notes that, in the

same address, Modi also said that India was working to double its oil refining capacity over the next

five years, thereby revealing that fossil fuels would continue to be the key driving force in the

nation’s energy production. Moreover, Modi did not mention any timeline to achieve the

mentioned goal and, judging by India’s performance since the Paris Agreement, we have yet miles

to go before being able to attain a sought for level of green energy production.

For instance, in India the energy sector continues to be predominantly coal powered. One notes

this to be a determining factor in the atmospheric pollution which grips cities like Delhi every

winter, but hardly any steps have yet been taken to rectify the shortcomings. In the developed

nations, there has been a game changing thrust at generating renewable energy after harnessing

power of the wind, sun, water, nuclear plants, etc.

This is why coalfired plants are shutting down there and experts predict that by 2040 almost every

developed country in the G20 would be primarily green power-driven. Reportedly, even China is

working frantically to reduce its dependence on coal by experimenting with and introducing

alternative sources of renewable energy.

In his address, the Prime Minister also spoke about how India was making progress in the field of

solar power, but ground realities reveal a somewhat bleaker scenario, with ambitious schemes

languishing and production being confined only to a handful of States.

As for wind power, India has accorded a somewhat modest target of 60 GW by 2022, but research

by environmental organizations assert that wind installations may reach only 45 GW by March

2022, which is merely a drop in the ocean for a vast nation like India with its enormous energy

requirements. Clearly, India has a long way to go in achieving the target of 175 GW of renewable

energy by 2022 as mentioned by Modi.

GENERAL STUDIES 5: ASSAM ECONOMY

1. Decongesting Guwahati city

Guwahati city has become overcrowded. Those days when you could see greenery and water-

bodies all around Guwahati had long passed. Now it has become a concrete jungle with unplanned

construction everywhere. There is enough demand for accommodation, on rent or self-owned, and

there is enough money available to build housing space as it provides a safe rate of return.

So, if there is demand for accommodation in this city, then that demand shall be met by new

construction, ecological degradation and spoiling of the age-old natural beauty of this city

notwithstanding. The fast-growing population of the city causes traffic snarls in every main road,

and so in the bylanes, particularly at the office and school starting and closing timings.

The streets are chock-ablock with vehicles, mini-trucks, auto-rickshaws and motorcycles, and the

traffic moves at snail’s pace to test your patience. Contrast this to the weekend holidays when the

roads are relatively empty and one can drive easily without being hassled by the honking of the

impatient vehicles from behind.

One gets this relative peace on roads because besides the floating population who commute to and

from the city only on weekdays, the semi-residents (those people belonging to nearby towns who

take residence here on rent for working in the government and other offices) go back to their

respective places for the week end holidays only to come back on Monday to resume their office

life.

This segment comprises a sizeable population of Guwahati as could be deduced indirectly from the

reduction of traffic in the city roads on holidays. The population in this segment is growing with

time as all the new jobs seem to have been created in and around Guwahati only; take for example,

the blue-collared jobs created in new shopping malls or new highrise complexes or new hotels,

motels, resorts, restaurants, etc., besides the new white-collared openings in government/ other

offices.

The government and the authorities concerned are doing their best to tackle the situation. One can

evidence this from the number of new bridges, road widening projects, new flyovers that are

implemented in the last few years and also from the new initiatives announced including planning

of faster and bulk transport systems. But these provide only temporary reliefs as by the time a new

project for streamlining traffic gets completed, the traffic catches up to the older level or even

more due to the new additions of vehicles or from new population entering the city. One gathers,

everyday around 200 new vehicles are added into the already overcrowded vehicle population of

the city.

Also, the population in Guwahati is growing. It was 9,62,300 in 2011 and it was estimated to rise to

11,12,896 in 2020, even at a conservative yearly growth rate of 1.63%. So incremental

improvement in infrastructure wouldn’t suffice. So, we need to look at alternative long-term

solutions. It is, in this context, we should think about redefining the concept of satellite towns.

In common parlance, when we talk about satellite towns, we possibly think of Sonapur/ Khetri or

even Jagiroad, Mirza or thereabouts, North Guwahati or any area which falls within this limited

radius. The problem with this understanding is that when these satellite towns are developed to

meet their growth expectations, the load in Guwahati city will correspondingly rise straining its

infrastructural facilities even further. The new prosperity in these satellite towns would unload its

consequences on the infrastructure of Guwahati city only as more people from the developed

satellite towns are expected to descend here. So, it’s time that we redefine the concept of satellite

town itself.

The satellite towns that we presently refer to should for all practical purposes be considered as

part of extended Guwahati city as the infrastructural load gets reflected in Guwahati only. We need

to include places like Nalbari up to Barpeta, Mangaldoi even up to Tezpur, Nagaon even up to

Jakhalabandha, etc., under Guwahati’s satellite towns’ category.

The criterion for such inclusion should be that one should be able to reach Guwahati from these

towns in a matter of 45 minutes to an hour. If that is the case, then people from these places can

come in the morning to Guwahati, either for medical attention or for official work at Dispur or even

to see a movie or visit shopping malls, and return comfortably home after finishing their work. To

make it happen, what do we need?

We need a ‘Fast Mass Transport System’ (FMTS) to provide connectivity to these towns so that the

‘45 minutes to an hour’ criterion is fulfilled. In these days of bullet trains, this should not be difficult

to achieve in future. But the system should be efficient operationally, the tickets cheap enough and

the availability frequent and timely. There can be a separate hub created for this, located outside

city limits from where small metro trains can operate to places of interest (say medical college

hospital, Dispur capital complex, ropeway point, central market/shopping area, etc.). We can take

the example of the Paris underground railway network where there is a station for tourists to

disembark/embark near every tourist site. In such a scenario, floating population and even semi-

residents (weekdays’ residents only) would conveniently use this FMTS facility to commute without

taking residence in Guwahati and to that extent the clogging of the city’s infrastructure facilities

would ease.

Obviously, this is not going to happen tomorrow. But can we at least think about the concept

directionally to incorporate it in the State’s LRP (Long Range Plan) or in the longer PP (Perspective

Plan)?

One can then even think about the stretch of land from Khetri/Jagiroad to Nagaon by the sides of

National Highway 37 to locate universities, educational institutes, reputed residential schools, even

big reputed shopping malls so that these are within driving distance for the surrounding towns’

residents paving the way to all-round development of middle Assam while unclogging Guwahati

city. The NHAI could then be persuaded to upgrade NH-37 into an eight-lane highway. Any takers?