Fifty-three people died due to encephalitis and 362 others suffered from acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) in Assam since January this year.
Another 24 positive cases of Japanese encephalitis were detected during the period, NRHM state surveillance officer Dr B C Bhagabati told PTI.
Dibrugarh district in upper Assam accounted for the maximum deaths (13), he said. Ten of the deaths were reported this week, he said.
Three deaths were reported in Dibrugarh, two each in Sonitpur and Darrang, while one each in Jorhat, Lakhimpur and Morigaon districts.
Kamrup (Metro) where Guwahati is situated had 29 incidences of the disease during last six months.
As preventive measures, he said, the government has stepped up fogging and DDT spraying, intensified the ITBN (Insecticide Treated Bednet) scheme besides holding awareness programmes in villages.
GUWAHATI: Kapiluddin Sheikh, the sole bread earner of a family of six, is distraught since he and 10 other fellow coal mine workers left Nangalbibra in Meghalaya's South Garo Hills district on Monday, a day after eight workers were killed by armed miscreants in the area on Sunday.
"We somehow managed to hire a car and left Nangalbibra in the evening. There was so much tension among the coal mine labourers following the killings that we couldn't risk our stay," Kapiluddin, a resident of Mancachar in Assam's Dhubri district, said.
"Leaving our place of work was a big loss for us financially. We run our families from the money we get by working in Garo Hills coal mines. But when we saw other labourers leaving the place in hordes, we couldn't muster the courage to stay behind," Kapiluddin, who earns about Rs 10,000 a month, added.
The killing of a labourer last week following rumours of rape of a mentally challenged woman and the Sunday mayhem, created panic among migrant workers. Sunday's incident triggered exodus of migrant workers and over 3,000 people have left Garo Hills since then. The exodus is still continuing.
With workers leaving Garo Hills for their homes in Goalpara and Dhubri districts, tension has mounted on the Assam side of the inter-state border too. The two districts share a border with Meghalaya and the Assam side also has sizeable Garo population.
Goalpara DC Pritam Saikia said vigil along the inter-state border areas have been stepped up. "We are working with Meghalaya government to prevent escalation of violence. Army is also on alert," Saikia said.
"We have seen many cars packed with workers from Garo Hills entering Assam on Tuesday," a police officer at Kukurkata along the Assam-Meghalaya border said.
The All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), however, accused both the Meghalaya and Assam governments of creating a similar situation like that of Bodoland Territorial Area District (BTAD) in the neighbouring state. Last year, nearly 100 people were killed and about five lakh people displaced in an ethnic conflict between Bodos and Bengali-speaking Muslims in BTAD.
"We are dismayed over the way Muslim workers are attacked and killed. While Meghalaya government failed to save lives of the workers, the Assam government has failed to ensure safety of its people in the neighbouring state," Muslim Youths Forum Against Communalism, Terrorism and Sedition secretary, Alim Ullah, alleged.
Dhemaji (Assam): Assam has been hit by floods with 25 villages in flood-prone Dhemaji district inundated on Wednesday, official sources said.
The situation it is feared could deteriorate with the water level of Jiadhol river, a tributary of Brahmaputra, rising alarmingly following heavy rainfall in neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh.
The flood water has inundated 25 villages under Noruathan and Ghughua circles in west Dhemaji affecting more than 30,000 people, the sources said adding the residents have left their homes and taken shelter in the highlands.
There has, however, been no report of any casualty or injury so far.
The district administration has directed the concerned authorities to provide relief to the affected people, the sources added.
National Human Rights Commission today sought a report from the Assam government on allegations of HIV infected blood transfusion in a state-run hospital.
Taking a suo motu cognisance of media reports that four persons had tested HIV positive after blood transfusion at district hospital in Mangaldoi in Assam due to negligence of hospital authorities, the rights body issued a notice to the state Chief Secretary, an NHRC statement said.
"The investigation revealed that the four patients, who tested HIV positive, had taken blood directly from the donors which was transfused to them by the concerned hospital staff without proper test," the statement said.
The Chief Secretary has been given four weeks time to file a report in this case. He has also been directed to inform the name of the victims, the status of their health and the amount of compensation, if any, being proposed to be paid to them as compensation along with the report with regard to disciplinary action, if any, initiated against the delinquent public servants, the statement said.
The Commission has observed that the contents of the press report, if true, raise a serious issue of violation of human rights of the patients.
Reportedly, a section of the hospital staff was hand-in- glove with the illegal professional donors and three officials, including a government doctor, had been put under suspension, the statement said.
Guwahati (Assam), June 25 : Devotees thronged the historic temple of Goddess Kamakhya in large numbers to celebrate a religious festival in Guwahati city over the weekend.
The religious fair, which is also known as the Ambubachi Festival, is held annually during the monsoon. This year, the four-day-long festival began from June 22.
On the first three days, the main gate of the temple remains closed to visitors. It is opened on the fourth day.
For the first three days, the Goddess Kamakhya is said to be going through her menstrual cycle and visitors are not permitted to disturb her.
According to devotees, the goddess depicts womanhood, motherhood and is a giver of life.
Mithilesh Kumar Dinkar, a devotee, said the goddess fulfills the wishes of all those who visit her.
Spiritual gurus and priests camp outside the temple and wait for the door to open on the fourth day.
The Ambubachi fair is one of the biggest religious festivals of Hindus in Northeast India.
Nava Kanta Sharma, an organiser, said the state government had for the first time released funds for the festival for accommodation, commuting, security, medicals camps and food.
Sharma said that this would help in the promotion of religious tourism in the state.
"This festival attracts tourists not only from Assam but from the entire northeast. Here, there are many religious places, religious fairs, which attract visitors not only from Assam and the northeast, but tourists from other parts of the country and across the world," said Sharma.
The event will conclude on June 26.
Assam has reported the highest rate of incidence of crime against children in the Northeast, though compared at the national level the rate is pretty low at 1.03 per cent of the total number of crimes registered. Assam recorded a high of 392 cases and was followed by Manipur with 104, Mizoram with 95, Meghalaya with 91 and Arunachal Pradesh with 39, according to the latest report of the National Crime Records Bureau. The NCRB report said that the Northeastern states in general, barring Assam, have a crime rate against children of less than one per cent. Nagaland appears to be the most child-friendly state in the country with only 13 cases reported while Tripura and Sikkim have also recorded a low of 20 and 30 cases respectively.
Uttar Pradesh heads the list with 6,033 cases and was followed by Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Bihar with 5,168, 3,456 and 2,894 cases respectively. Assam registered the highest number of child rapes with 156 cases registered followed by Meghalaya and Mizoram with 81 and 73 cases respectively. Nagaland registered the least number of cases with seven while Tripura and Manipur reported 17 cases each, Arunachal Pradesh 18 and Sikkim 21.Assam also recorded 15 cases of murder of children while Manipur reported four, Tripura-two and Mizoram and Nagaland had registered one case each. Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim had reported no cases of murder of children.
Guwahati, Jun 24 : A 35-year high school dropout in backward Nagaon district of Assam has drawn national notoriety after it surfaced that it emerged that she had used a shaving blade to operate upon two women with gall bladder stones and appendicitis.
After the matter came to notice of authorities, officials from state health department raided the makeshift chamber of Manowara Khatun in Juria village, the same place where the she had performed both of her surgeries.
Though her patients have confirmed that they were operated upon by Khatun, she refused to admit to the charges when interrogated by officials.
Remarkably as it may sound, both of her patients are said to be hale and hearty now, weeks after the operation.
Khatun said she has been prescribing medicines after dropping out of high school but never tried surgery until recently.
Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said stern action would be taken against Khatun if found guilty of medical malpractice. A Nagaon district health officer said, "We have not yet found anything to suggest she performed surgeries."
GUWAHATI: As China eyes Tibet as its potential region for harnessing water resource and hydro-power, experts are increasingly wary about India's stand on the Brahmaputra where Beijing has planned a number of projects.
The Brahmaputra river system, a lifeline for the people of the northeast, supports the fragile ecosystem in the region. With Tibet alone accounting for about 30 per cent of China's fresh water, experts have not only raised questions over the way India flags its concern with the neighbouring country but also raised fears about the possibility of conflict over the trans-boundary water.
"So far, India's stand has been to downplay whatever China is doing in harnessing the Brahamaputra. India is wary of engaging with China on the issue of the Brahmaputra," said Nimmi Kurien, associate professor at the New Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research (CPR).
Kurien was speaking at workshop on water conflicts in the northeast organised by Pune-based Forum for Policy Dialogue on Water Conflicts in India (FPDWCI) and Guwahati-based Aaranyak here on Saturday. Kurien also pointed out that China has been telling India that the hydro-power projects on the Brahmaputra were run-of-the-river projects and as they do not have water storage and would, therefore, not affect water flow to the northeast.
"But what about the cumulative impact from these projects. India being the lower riparian state should more and more engage with China on the set of issues related to water, dam safety and cumulative impacts. These issues should find proper mention in the India-China talks," said Kurien. .
She added that the existing agreement on sharing floodwater data by China with India does not help in building trust between the two countries when it comes to dealing with trans-boundary rivers like the Brahmaputra.
However, experts have also questioned India's "moral ground" on raising the issue of trans-boundary river with China.
"The 1500-MW Tipaimukh dam on the Barak River in Manipur has equally raised concerns in Bangladesh over the negative impact from project. Bangladesh is worried about the impact on flow of water. But India decided to go ahead with the project. Now, does India have the moral ground to raise similar concerns when it comes to the Brahmaputra with China," said R K Ranjan Singh, environmentalist and senior visiting fellow in Manipur University.
Kolkata, June 21 : Erratic rainfall and extremely high temperature are feared to affect production of the second flush Assam tea crop, while production of Darjeeling tea is expected to witness about 10 percent rise this year despite more rainfall.
Tea is generally harvested in a "first flush" and a "second flush." The first flush is picked during late March. The second flush, harvested towards May end, is generally considered superior to the first flush tea.
Planters in Assam, India's largest tea producing state, said no rain along with very high temperature for the last four days would have "a lot of impact" on second flush tea production as well as quality.
"In some pockets rainfall has been deficient compared to last year, while in some other pockets it has remained at the same level. Distribution of rainfall over Assam's tea growing regions is not satisfactory this time," North Eastern Tea Association (NETA) chairman Bidyananda Barkakoty told IANS.
Assam alone produces about 53 percent of the India's total production of tea, the favourite brew of the country.
"Second flush is the best quality crop. The present adverse weather conditions would affect production as well as the quality," he observed.
Mercury level has been soaring in the state to an unprecedented high for the last couple of days with temperature hovering around 35-38 degrees Celsius.
"Bushes cannot bear that much temperature. So high temperature of more than 35 degrees has affected the crop," he explained.
The second flush accounts for about 20 percent of the total annual crop production in Assam, which produced about 580 million kg of tea last year.
As best quality second flush generally fetches higher value, an adverse impact on the crop and its quality would hit industry profitability.
Five districts of Assam - Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Sivsagar, Jorhat and Golaghat - produce about 70 percent of the state's total tea production.
But there is some good news. The high quality second flush Darjeeling tea is expected to witness a rise in production this year.
"This year distribution of rain in Darjeeling has been scattered. Now we are witnessing more rains compared to the same period last year. But till now production of second flush crop has been ok," S S Bagaria, chairman of the Darjeeling Tea Association, told IANS.
"Overall quality of the crop is also satisfactory," he averred, adding that this year production of the second flush Darjeeling crop might go up by 10 percent compared to last year.
Last year, Darjeeling produced around two million kg of second flush tea.
The annual production of tea in Darjeeling generally remains close to 8-9 million kg.
GUWAHATI: Three youths were lynched on Tuesday night in Assam's Sonitpur district by villagers, driven by rumours of " dark and nude men" reportedly molesting women at night.
Members of village defence committee lynched the youths who were found loitering near Tezpur without even bothering to ascertain their identity. Later, it turned out that they were miscreants involved in stealing crude oil from underground pipelines. Several others have been injured in similar attacks.
"Such a rumour is doing the rounds but no one has actually seen any nude men. We are visiting every village to tell people to exercise restraint," said deputy commissioner Tapan Sarma. Local officials held a meeting following a spurt in rumour-driven attacks in the district. "We have decided to send our people to every nook and corner to tell villagers that the story about nude men is a rumour and people should not believe it," Sarma said.
Police said the rumour had spread across the district. "We have been told that male members of villages have been forced to patrol the villages at night by women. There are some stories about dark nude men knocking on doors at night and attacking women of the house. Some say the attackers have even bit off parts of the victims' bodies but no one has reported any such incident to police or gone to hospital," a source said.
Sarma said Tuesday's incident was unfortunate. The three youths were travelling in a vehicle when they were attacked with sharp weapons. Later, police recovered several empty cans meant for carrying stolen crude oil from the vehicle.
The district bordering Arunachal Pradesh is considered the cultural hub of the state. It also witnessed several incidents of witch-hunting deaths in the past.
Twelve years of Congress rule may have brought down insurgency in the state, but Assam has emerged as the state with the highest rate of violent crimes during 2011-12. The state also reported the highest rate in crimes against women in the country, for the period.
The latest edition of Crimes in India report published by the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) said that while the share of violent crimes of the total IPC crimes in the country was 11.5 per cent, Assam reported the highest rate (54.2 per cent), followed by Manipur (44.6), Kerala (42.7) and Delhi (34.7). Number-wise, however, UP topped the chart with 33,824 violent crimes that accounted for 12.3 per cent of total violent crimes in the country.
Under the crimes against women category too, Assam topped the chart with 89.5 per cent, as compared to the national average of 41.7 per cent. West Bengal recorded the highest number of 30,942 crimes against women —12.6 per cent share of the entire country. The crime rate is calculated on the basis of number of crimes committed per one lakh population.
Of the 16,874 violent crimes Assam recorded in 2011-12, 5,077 were riots, 2,830 arson, 3,812 kidnapping and abductions, 1,716 rapes, 1,368 murders, and 670 attempts to murder, the report said.
Though Uttar Pradesh recorded 33,824 violent crimes during the same year, the incident-to-population ratio was highest in Assam. Sikkim recorded the least number of violent crimes, 58, including 34 rapes and 10 kidnappings.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Monday announced compensation of Rs 5 lakh to four people, who contracted HIV after blood transfusion in a government civil hospital at Mangaldoi, Darrang. Gogoi said that the state government will bear the medical expenses for their treatment. While three persons, including Dr Jiten Sahariya — in charge of the blood bank attached to the hospital — have been suspended, Gogoi has asked the state advocate general to explore legal options for initiating action against the guilty.
