| - Nagaon | ||
Guwahati, May 19 : Two new varieties of summer paddy, which have proved sturdy enough to withstand a near-drought climate, will fill the plates of starved farmers in Nagaon. NBR II, also called Swarnabh, and NBR III, popularly known as Dinanath, are high-yielding, disease resistant, cold tolerant, short duration and high protein content crops in comparison to other recognised seeds. Both varieties, developed by junior scientist (plant breeding), Pankaj Kumar Dev Chaudhury, of the Regional Agricultural Research Station, Shillong, were planted on more than 50 hectares during the ongoing season and harvest is likely to begin soon. “The two varieties take less than 150 days to yield, while the crop duration is 170 to 180 days in case of other varieties. Dinanath is totally cold tolerant and it can easily withstand common diseases like blast and sheath blight,” Dev Chaudhury said. The farmers are pleased and so is the agriculture department. “The results are satisfactory. In the midst of a drought-like situation, our farmers will harvest 90 quintals of rice per hectare area this time,” said National Food Security Mission, Nagaon’s nodal officer Pradip Buragohain. Number-9, Bihari, is the traditional summer crop in Nagaon. Four other varieties recognised by Assam Agriculture University — Masuri, Jyoti Prasad, Bishnuprasad and Jaymoti — are also popular. Nagaon has 373,451 hectares of agricultural area, of which more than 65,000 hectares are cultivated during summer. According to department records, the district’s total summer rice production in 2007-08 was 172,125 metric tonnes. It was 73,018 in case of kharif and 314,134 in case of sali. The National Food Security Mission recently carried out over 60 demonstrations of two other newly-developed crops, MTU 7029, also called Swarna and MTU 1010 Cottondora Sannalu, in Nagaon. “Along with seeds, we provided fertilisers, pesticides, minerals and some technical assistance to the farmers free of cost. Since last year’s production crossed 90 quintals per hectare, we plan to continue with the two varieties provided for the forthcoming sali season,” Buragohain said. Nagaon agriculture department will also launch training programmes for nine groups of farmers under the food security mission, which would cover all the seasonal crops. “Use of fertilisers and pesticides, importance of irrigation and above all, systems of rice intensification, will be the main topics of the training,” Buragohain said. |
Assam women teachers to save and strengthen the public-funded higher education sector.
Women college teachers in Assam will now don the role of friend, philosopher and guide to help students know more about their immediate environment, develop leadership skills, tide over personal problems and create awareness about the threat posed to the higher education sector.
The move comes in the wake of economic meltdown and the threat posed by exodus of students. According to the association, nearly 50,000 students go out annually.
The second state-level convention of women teachers, organised by the ACTA in Nagaon yesterday, has firmed up a roadmap for women teachers, association president A.K. Das said.
“The counselling will be initially held twice a year and will be confined to girls students because they will find it easier to share their problems with our women colleagues who will try to advice them accordingly. They will try to instil leadership quality in the students. The teachers will also interact with the neighbourhood and change perceptions about the education sector and other social problems. The nature of counselling will be different in urban and rural areas,” he added.
Dispur has attributed the exodus to non-introduction of courses in demand and non-update of existing courses. No new post has been created since 1992 and there are about 1,100 vacant posts in colleges.
“The government has only given permission to colleges to introduce self-financing courses which is not feasible because not many can afford it. Those who can, prefer to go out. During this economic crisis, one cannot rely on private institutions, which the government is backing now. Even a leading institution like Cotton College is facing problems filling up degree seats,” ACTA general secretary Pradip Dutta said, urging Dispur to prepare a database of those leaving for higher studies to get to the exact nature of loss.
Tapati Mukhopadhyay, a senior office-bearer of the All India Federation of University and College Teachers Organisation, said: “It is unique step. To save the higher education sector and prevent exodus of students from the state and the Northeast, women teachers can play a more effective role.”
| Bandh today to protest Bokoliahat firing | ||
Nagaon, Feb 12 The India Reserve Battalion personnel deployed at Bokoliahat in Assam’s Karbi Anglong district were today shifted out of the area to quell public anger over the killing of a teenaged girl in IRB firing on Monday. Two major political parties in the district — the Autonomous State Demand Committee (ASDC) and the CPM(L) — have separately called a 12-hour Karbi Anglong bandh from 5am tomorrow in protest against the killing of 17-year-old Parboti Terangpi. District superintendent of police K.K. Sarma said the IRB personnel would be replaced by the CRPF. He said the shifting had become necessary given the anger of the people towards the security force. “The seven-member IRB team will be sent to some other place far away from Bokoliahat,” he added. Yesterday, a large number of people demonstrated and pelted stones at Bokoliahat police station in protest against the “unprovoked firing”. Two policemen were injured in the mob rage. IRB havildar Nuruddin Ahmed had opened fire on a group of villagers from Phanglokpet on Monday evening when they went to the temporary IRB camp in the village to lodge a complaint against some IRB personnel who beat up some local youths during a religious function. Parboti was killed in the firing and five others, including four girls, were injured. The havildar’s arrest on Monday failed to calm down the villagers, forcing the district administration to remove the camp from the area. The village, however, continued to churn in anger as Parboti was cremated at the village public cremation ground. Hundreds, including teachers and students of Phanglokpet High English School where she was a student Class X, were present. The ASDC and CPM(L) today threatened to launch a “mass agitation” if the victims’ families did not get justice as promised by the local administration and if the harassment of innocent civilians by the security forces was not stopped immediately. IRB commander Prasanta Sagar Changmai, who rushed to the district yesterday, completed his field investigation and left today. He will submit his report to additional DGP (training and armed police) Sibabrata Kakoti. A high-level team of Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council, led by its chief executive member Jayram Engleng, visited Phanglokpet this evening. Karbi Human Rights Watch today said it would soon publish a paper listing the incidents in which innocent villagers of the district were victimised by security forces. “These types of incidents will not be tolerated any more. Soon, we will go into a huddle to devise our strategy to prevent such harassment,” the convener of the watch group, Pankaj Teron, said. |
| Nagaon |
| Feb 4 : Incompetence, delay, bribery and inefficiency will soon cease to be synonyms for government offices in Nagaon. Computers will replace bulky files even at the grassroots next month, allowing villagers to savour the benefits of “clean” e-governance. In an effort to ensure transparency, the Nagaon administration will put in place a single window system, by which all the state government offices under the deputy commissioner and the 10 revenue circles will be linked to the headquarters through the Assam Statewide Area Network. Most of the work is complete in all the revenue offices. New computers have been installed, offices renovated and staff trained for the single window system. “We have more than 20 computers of our own and these will also be utilised. The server will be kept in the district National Informatics Centre office building which is on the second floor of the deputy commissioner’s office,” an official in the district administration said. The district has already received Rs 10 lakh as special assistance from Dispur for executing the e-governance project. “Knocking on every door to find out the position of a file or an application will be a thing of the past. People will now submit their applications at the public facilitation centre and collect the required documents from there,” Nagaon deputy commissioner J. Balaji said. “The treasury will be fully computerised to ease the formalities,” Balaji said. |
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