GUWAHATI, March 5 � The State Cabinet will go for a decision within six months, on the proposal mooted by noted filmmaker Jahnu Barua for creating a separate time zone for the NE region based on a consensus opinion of the scientists of the State as well as the other States of the region. It will then, teaming up with the other States of the region, pursue the case �very seriously� with the Central Government.
Science and Technology Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said in the State Assembly today in response to a Zero Hour motion moved by Congress legislator Bhupen Bora on the issue.
The Minister said that the State Government would hold a seminar of the State�s scientists on the issue in the next month and it would also ask the other states of the region to go for similar exercises for the purpose.
He assured the House that the developments in this regard would be made known to its members after six months.
Lauding the effort made by Jahnu Barua as a great service, the Minister held that the differences in time in different areas of a country as per the respective occurrence of dawn and dusk are quite scientific.
The time of the NE region, despite its experiencing the dawn and dusk about 40 minutes ahead of Allahabad and other areas of the country, is determined as per the schedule of those places located in distant western locations.
But the differences experienced by the people of the region as far as their biological clock is concerned, make them lose the productive age and hence they are lagging far behind the people of those western parts of the country in matters of development. This is also the reason as to why the people of the region consume more power, said the Minister.
Earlier, raising the issue, Bhupen Bora drew the attention of the Government to the article of Jahnu Barua on the issue and said that by creating a separate time zone for the NE region, the people of the region could make big strides towards progress. As, he said, the region would be able to prepone its schedule by two hours with this arrangement based on the time of dawn and dusk experienced in the region.
Such an arrangement needs no investment and every electricity consuming family of the region could save around Rs 43,000 annually with this arrangement in place, Bora said.
