North East Rising

Guwahati, Sep 9: In a bid to chalk out a strategy and to conceptualize a master plan for beautification and holistic development of Seppa Township and its adjacent area, the recently constituted Seppa Town Planning Committee on Tuesday convened its first meeting at Kameng Hall, Seppa in Arunachal Pradesh’s East Kameng district.

Co-chairing the meeting, local MLA Tapuk Taku appreciated the district administration led by East Kameng Deputy Commissioner for the initiative and urged for more such brainstorming sessions involving all stakeholders for progressive development of the Seppa Township.

Enlightening and praising about the original plan of the Seppa town, MLA Taku opined for proper assessment and demarcation of physical boundaries of town and its adjacent areas and suggested for a long-term plan encompassing all basic amenities directed towards integrated expansion of the town.

Explaining in detailed about the reasons for the haphazard development of town, MLA exhorted for development of villages in order to arrest the exponential migration of people out of villages to town.

Pondering upon issues such as dumping yard, bridge connecting Pacha Myorang, among others, MLA Taku advised to leverage the already available infrastructures like ring roads at the fullest for further expansion of the town.

Assuring to extend all possible assistance for the progressive development of the town, he also exhorted all stakeholders to cooperate and coordinate with the district administration in conceptualizing a plan for holistic development of the town.

Regarding ODF and traffic management, MLA Taku instructed the DUDA to monitor and generate awareness amongst people about ill-effects of open defecation and directed the police department for proper enforcement of all rules on traffic regulation. He also urged the people to cooperate and obey traffic rules and regulation.

Speaking in the meeting, East Kameng DC P Pravimal Abhishek highlighted about the salient features of the AP Urban and Country Planning Act and AP Municipal Act in regulating haphazard development of Seppa town.

He dwelt at length about the role and responsibility and power of Local Planning Authority as enshrined in the Act. He also explained in detail about the strategy to chalk out a master plan for township development of District HQs.

In order to empower and revitalize the DUDA, DC Pravimal Abhishek opined for judicious utilization of all govt. assets to generate more revenue for the DUDA. Regarding parking of vehicles, solid waste management, Tari bridge and illegal encroachment, DC informed that consultation is underway to assess and resolve all the issues.

Chami Tok, Assistant Town Planner, briefed the gathering about the aims and objectives of town planning and its advantages, process and components.

ADC (HQ) Dahey Sangno also spoke in the meeting and urged all to extend their support for comprehensive development of the Seppa town.

The house unanimously resolved to undertake and expedite the activities like – to activate the Local Town Planning Authority of Seppa town, to assess the present land use pattern of the Seppa township and accordingly prepare an interim plan for next 5-10 years, to explore alternative solutions to resolve the parking issues, to empower and generate revenue for the DUDA through value addition of its assets, remodelling of present govt. assets for town beautification, to conduct survey and drive to check rampant encroachment, to identify a land for Material Recovery Facility (MRF), to conduct STPC meetings quarterly.

Dy SP N Sora, EE (WRD) Suren Natung, PD DRDA Ashok Tajo, EAC (Bana) Pooza Sonam Natung, EKCC&I President Tasang Taku, and a host of HoDs, administrative officers, representatives of EKSWCO, colonies, NGOs and transport associations were also present and took part in the discussion.

Guwahati, Sep 8: Assam Chief Minister Sonowal also paid rich floral tributes to Dr Bhupen Hazarika on the occasion of the latter’s 94th birth anniversary. At the same programme, he inaugurated Sri Uttar Kamalabari Sakha Satra and Cultural Research Centre at Jorhat on Tuesday.

The building was constructed under the untied fund of the State government involving a financial outlay of Rs 30 lakh.

Speaking on the occasion, Sonowal said that he was feeling happy to have inaugurated Sri Uttar Kamalabari Sakha Satra on the auspicious occasion of Dr Bhupen Hazarika’s birth anniversary.

He said that he sincerely hoped that the inauguration of Sri Uttar Kamalabari Sakha Satra at Jorhat would help to propagate and spread the teachings of Mahapurush Srimanta Sankardeva outside Majuli and to several parts of the state.

He also said that in the age of science and technology, Srimanta Sankardeva’s teachings are very relevant and help the mankind to maintain a perfect balance between traditional values and modernism.

Assam Chief Minister Sonowal said that Assam owes a great deal to the contributions of Dr Bhupen Hazarika. His creations bind the humanity and help them to spread the message of life across the world.

He also urged upon the people, in general, to take the responsibility to aware the younger generation of the teachings of Srimanta Sankaradeva, Sri Madhavdeva, Dr Bhupen Hazarika etc. He at the same time thanked late Prasenjit Kumar Phukan, the donor of the plot of the land on which the Sakha Satra has been built and his family for their benevolence.

Rajya Sabha MP Kamakhya Prasad Tasa, Satradhikar of Sri Uttar Kamalabari Satra Sri Janardan Deva Goswami, MLA Bimal Bora and a host of other dignitaries were present on the occasion.

Guwahati, Sep 8: Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati in collaboration with Workspace Metal Solutions Pvt. Ltd., Udaipur, has developed a first-of-its-kind self check kiosk.

The small structure helps by streamlining the flow of people through the kiosk. The Kiosk only takes about 30 seconds to check whether the person safe to enter the premises or not.

It is quick but very accurate contactless check which can determine if an individual is running a fever, low blood oxygen levels and, therefore, potentially has COVID-19 or any another viral or bacterial infection.

The self-check kiosk has been developed by Dr Senthilmurugan Subbiah, Associate Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati, and Puneet Talesara, Founder, Workspace Group, and alumnus of IIT Guwahati.

The cost of a self check kiosk varies from Rs 3.5 lakh to Rs 7.5 lakh depending on the specification and features. The product has already been commercialised. The Institute has also installed self-check kiosk at its campus as well. The team has also filed for a patent.

With the gradual easing of public lockdown measures and return to normal life, it is the need of the hour to ensure safe entry to any premises. The fully automated touchless self-check kiosk has been designed as per the WHO guidelines.

It instantly detects and records the syndromes associated with COVID-19 like body temperature and blood oxygen content and raises alarm in case it is beyond the limits.

The Kiosk features first of its kind UV-C disinfectant box capable of killing viruses/bacteria present on the surfaces of luggage, bags, keys, mobiles, wallet etc. thereby reducing the risk of spreading.

The individual who is entering a premise will have to follow the steps – Stand on the footmarks marked in front of the kiosk; remove the face mask and align the face in the grid displayed on the screen to measure the body temperature, once the temperature is measured, the individual will have to wave its hand over the sensor of the UV-C chamber to open its door for keeping the belongings inside. UV-C box will perform 360⁰ disinfection on all the exposed surface, the individual will have to place its index finger on the SpO₂ sensor to check the oxygen saturation in the body. (Oxygen above 95% is a sign of a healthy human body), after this, the individual can disinfect the hands by placing them below the automatic sanitizer dispenser unit, post hand sanitization, the individual can collect the belongings from UV-C chamber and can proceed further.

Talking about the innovation, Dr Senthilmurugan Subbiah, Associate Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Guwahati said that – “The kiosk installed at IIT Guwahati campus is IoT enabled and its data analysis system is capable of face identification and creating employee/person health historical data. Kiosk’s AI-based software system is capable of monitoring an individual’s health from historical data and in case of abnormal temperature and SpO2 level measured than the kiosk generates the alarm to health department authorities of their company/organisation/institute. The innovative UVC system design is capable of emitting UVC radiation from 6 surfaces of UVC box and that provides 99.99 % of viruses’/bacteria disinfection in 10 seconds.”

He further added – “Overall, the kiosk system developed by IIT Guwahati and Workspace Metal Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Udaipur can provide a community solution to fight against COVID 19 by ensuring surveillance of an individual’s health and disinfection of the items belonging to the individual.”

Speaking about their work, Puneet Talesara, IIT-Guwahati Alumni and Founder, Workspace Metal Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Udaipur, said that – “Current catastrophic situation made us realise the importance of hygiene for a safe environment. ‘The self-check kiosk’ is an invaluable solution for quick detection of illnesses and reduce the spread of bacteria & viruses. This is a 100% Indian product and I feel that it will be a very good resource to fight the pandemic.”

Self-check kiosk offers a level of public access safety and accuracy that cannot be matched by existing human-error prone processes. It maximises user convenience and safety without compromising the organisation’s need for efficiency and security. In future, the recorded data can be transferred or accessed from the central control room for monitoring purpose.

Guwahati, September 4: Assam Education minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma said that, from now the state government will promote only secular and modern education.

Himanta Biswa Sarma said in the Assam assembly recently that, the state government will not patronize any educational institution on religious lines.

He further said that all government Madrassas, Sanskrit Tools across the state will be closed from November this year.

“But the privately run Madrassas will be continued. The government has no issue with the normal Madrasas which are being run by various social organizations or other NGOs,” Himanta said.

Earlier in February, the state government had issued an order to eliminate the Arabic term ‘Maktab’ from the government schools.

In Arabic, Maktab means school and there were 63 government-run schools in Assam have been using the Arabic term ‘Maktab’.

The Assam Education minister also said that, Sanskrit is the mother of all modern languages and the state government has decided that, all the Sanskrit Tools will come under the Kumar Bhaskar Varma Sanskrit and Ancient Studies University and will start functioning in a new form.

“The state government will issue a notification for this soon,” Himanta Biswa Sarma said.

Guwahati, Aug 25: Police recovered a large quantity of arms and ammunition in Assam, Udalguri district on Tuesday.

Based on intelligence input, a police team of Udalguri district had launched an operation at Nepalpara rubber Bagan area in the district under Bodoland Territorial Area Districts (BTAD) and recovered the arms and ammunition which were kept hidden underground.

Police had recovered one AK series rifle, four pistols, a large number of ammunition, two walkie talkie sets from the area.

Earlier, police recovered a large quantity of arms, ammunition, explosives from different locations in Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa districts.