ASSAM
‘90% of Assam’s daily cases from 358 micro-containment zones’
Over 358 micro-containment zones, identified as ‘high case areas’, are contributing to over 90% of the daily cases in Assam, senior health department officials said on Wednesday.
Though Assam has a low positivity rate when compared to other states in the region, around 1,700 cases are being reported daily, which is the highest in the northeast. Five districts in the state are currently under round-the-clock curfew.
The areas where the cases are being reported from have been earmarked, he said, except in Guwahati. “In Guwahati there is a constant movement of people at airport and railway stations where people have been testing positive. But in rural districts, the focused areas are well marked and put under containment. Infections are being tested mostly in the containment zones,” Choudhury added.
During the second wave, 7,900 locations were turned into micro-containment zones in the state, but the number of active micro-containment zones has drastically reduced. “At least 50% of these micro-containment zones are in the five districts which are under curfew,” he said.
NORTH-EASTERN STATES
Brief backgrounder on Assam’s border disputes with NE states
The division of Assam and creation of the predominantly tribal states of Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh left a residue of boundary problems, which continue to bedevil relations between the neighbours.
Meghalaya: The problem between Assam and Meghalaya started when the latter challenged the Assam Reorganisation Act of 1971, which gave Blocks I and II of the Mikir Hills or present-day Karbi Anglong district to Assam. Meghalaya contends that both these blocks formed part of the erstwhile United Khasi and Jaintia Hills district when it was notified in 1835. At present there are 12 points of dispute along the 733-km Assam-Meghalaya border.
Meghalaya bases its case on survey maps of 1872 and 1929 and certain notifications of 1878 and 1951 while Assam wants to go by the recommendations of the Churachand Committee which in turn has been rejected by Meghalaya. Joint surveys of the disputed border segments have been undertaken in part and the Chief Ministers of both the states are scheduled to meet again on August 6 at Guwahati to discuss ways to resolve the dispute.
Arunachal Pradesh: Arunachal’s grievance is that the re-organisation of North Eastern states, unilaterally transferred several forested tracts in the plains that had traditionally belonged to hill tribal chiefs and communities to Assam. After Arunachal Pradesh achieved statehood in 1987, a tripartite committee was appointed which recommended that certain territories be transferred from Assam to Arunachal. Assam contested this and the matter is before the Supreme Court.
Mizoram: Prior to 2020, though a border dispute existed, the situation along the Assam-Mizoram border had remained relatively calm, barring a few instances in 1994 and in 2007. Following a border incident 2007, Mizoram declared that it does not accept the present boundary with Assam and that the inner line of the Inner Line Reserved Forest as described in the 1875 notification under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation (BEFR) of 1873 should be the basis for delineating the border and not the 1933 district boundary demarcation which Assam wants to be enforced. Following recent violence in which seven people, including six policemen, were killed, Assam government has said that it will file a suit in the Supreme Court
Nagaland: The longest-running border dispute in the North East is between Assam and Nagaland, which began soon after Nagaland became a state in 1963. The Nagaland State Act of 1962 had defined the state’s borders according to a 1925 notification when Naga Hills and Tuensang Area (NHTA) were integrated into a new administrative unit. Nagaland, however, does not accept the boundary delineation and has demanded that the new state should also have all Naga- dominated area in North Cachar and Nagaon districts. Since Nagaland did not accept its notified borders, tensions between Assam and Nagaland flared up soon after the latter was formed, resulting in the first border clashes in 1965. This was followed by major clashes between the two states along the border in 1968, 1979, 1985, 2007 and 2014. The Assam government had filed a case in the Supreme to resolve the border dispute and for a permanent injunction restraining Nagaland from encroaching areas within the constitutional boundary of Assam. In 2005, the Supreme Court instructed the Central government to constitute a boundary commission to settle various inter-state boundary problems in the North East. The Centre had earlier constituted two commissions, the Sundaram Commission (1971) and the Shastri Commission (1985), to settle the Assam-Nagaland border dispute. These commissions, however, failed to resolve the matter as the concerned states did not accept their recommendations.
Assam-Arunachal Pradesh: 804.1 km bordering eight districts of Udalguri, Sonitpur, Biswanath, Lakhimpur, Dhemaji, Charaideo, Tinsukia and Dibrugarh. Assam-Mizoram: The two states share a 164.6-km border between the Assam’s districts of Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj, and Mizoram’s Kolasib, Mamit and Aizawl districts Assam-Nagaland: The two states share 512.1 km bordering four districts of Sivasagar, Charaideo, Jorhat and Golaghat. Assam-Meghalaya: The two states share 884.9 km bordering West Karbi Anglong, Dima Hasao, Morigaon, Kamrup Metro, Kamrup Rural, Goalpara, Dhubri and South Salmara.
INTERNATIONAL
World Day Against Trafficking in Persons – 30 July
United Nations observes 30 July every 12 months as World Day Against Trafficking in Persons.
Highlights:
In 2013, the General Assembly specified July 30 as World Day towards Trafficking in Persons to make awareness of the state of affairs of victims of human trafficking and the advertising and protection of their rights. The 2021 theme for World Day Against Trafficking in Persons is Victims’ Voices Lead the Way. This year’s theme puts victims of human trafficking at the centre of the marketing campaign. It will highlight the significance of listening to and getting to know survivors of human trafficking.
World Nature Conservation Day – 28th July
World Nature Conservation Day is designated on 28th July every year. The main motto of celebrating this day is to raise awareness about protecting nature & doing best practices for conserving our natural resources. The globe is supplied a limited amount of properties that we all rely upon each day, like water, air, soil and trees.
Steps to conserve the environment:
Alternate energy usage such as solar and wind energy. Planting more trees to maintain the ecosystem and to prevent soil erosion. Properly use the water resources and reuse the kitchen wastewater for watering our own gardens. Vegetation growth in catchment areas. Control the usage of electricity. Getting adopted recyclable & biodegradable products. Recycling wastes is a must. Minimize the usage of cars for a shorter distance. Usage of paper bags or cloth bags instead of plastic bags. Grow your vegetables by using organic compost. Install water treatment plants and rainwater harvesting.
Gamma-Ray Burst from Dying Star
Indian astronomers were part of a team that discovered the shortest Gamma-Ray Bursts from a dying star.
Highlights:
A team of astronomers detected a very short but powerful burst of high-energy radiation that lasted about a second and has been flying towards Earth for nearly half the age of the present universe.
The burst detected by NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope on 26th August, 2020, turned out to be one of the shortest gamma-ray bursts caused by the death of massive stars.
The GRB has been designated as GRB 200826A, after the date it occurred.
GRB 200826A was a brief burst of high-energy emission that lasted only 0.65 seconds. The signal had stretched out to about one second in length after travelling for aeons through the expanding universe when it was detected by Fermi’s Gamma-ray Burst Monitor.
NATIONAL
National Organ Transplant Programme – NOTP
The Indian government is implementing the NOTP to promote organ donation and transplantation in all Union Territories/States.
About the Programme:
The provisions under the programme include:
♦ The establishment of State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organizations (SOTTOs) in each state/union territories.
♦ Establishment of National/Regional/State Bio-material Centers.
♦ Financial assistance for the establishment of new Organ Transplant/Retrieval facilities as well as the strengthening of existing Organ Transplant/Retrieval facilities.
♦ Training of transplant specialists, including surgeons, physicians, transplant coordinators, etc
♦ Financial assistance for the recruitment of Transplant Coordinators at medical colleges and trauma centres.
♦ It is an immunosuppressive drug for patients below the poverty line (BPL) after transplantation.
♦ The Transplantation of Human Organs Act promulgated in 1994 aims to provide a system for the storage, removal and transplantation of human organs for therapeutic purposes and to prevent the commercial transaction of human organs.
Exercise Cutlass Express – INS Talwar
The INS Talwar participated in the 2021 “Cutlass Express ” multinational training exercise on the east coast of Africa.
About Exercise Cutlass Express:
♦ The exercise is an annual maritime exercise aimed at promoting maritime safety in countries and regions in East Africa and the West Indian Ocean.
♦ The exercise’s 2021 edition will include participation from 12 Eastern African countries, the United States, the United Kingdom, and India, as well as various international organisations such as the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the European Union Naval Force (EUNAVFOR), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Interpol, and the Critical Maritime Routes in the Indian Ocean (CRIMARIO).
♦ The exercise aims to assess and improve joint maritime law enforcement capabilities, promote national and regional security, and improve interoperability between regional navies.
♦ India’s Information Fusion Centre – Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR) is also taking part in the exercise.
India’s participation is in line with India’s established policy and vision for maritime cooperation in the Indian Ocean region SAGAR (Safety and Growth for All in the Region).
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