PASIGHAT: The Pasighat district health department is going all out to control mosquito-transmitted diseases like malaria, dengue and recently detected Japanese Encephalitis (JE) in the district. Headed
GUWAHATI: The Assam Government has decided to ban the sale of gutka and smokeless tobacco in the State. The government is planning to introduce a Bill in the Assembly soon in this regard. If this Bill
IMPHAL: The Manipur cabinet in a late night meeting resolved to ban sale of cigarttes and all tobacco products. It is not known what had prompted the State cabinet to take this momentous and unparalleled
GUWAHATI: Dispur is eagerly waiting for the Central government’s nod to include land erosion caused by the rivers in the State as an eligible calamity for relief under National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF). The eagerness of the Assam government is justifiable as the State Water Resources Department is in need of huge fund to undertake repair and maintenance of several age–old embankments, and to implement erosion protection schemes across the State. The inclusion of erosion as an eligible calamity for relief under NDRF and SDRF would help the Water Resources Department get access to Central fund meant for tackling natural disasters.
GUWAHATI: Guwahati Municipal Corporation’s (GMC) ambitious urban social plantation project has hit a roadblock. Due to the ‘indifferent attitude’ of the Guwahati Development Department (GDD), this project has not been able to take off. A GMC official said, “Guwahati has become a concrete jungle. Due to rapid growth of population and industries, concrete buildings are coming up in the capital city at a fast pace. As a consequence, the city is rapidly losing its green cover. In order to maintain a balance in the ecology and the environment, it is important to plant trees. With this objective, the GMC took up the urban social plantation project.
GUWAHATI: With Guwahati being the door to Northeast India and hundreds of people from outside the State entering the city each day, there is a huge danger of contacting the swine flu virus that has already killed many people in various parts of the country. The State Health department has taken all out measures to quell fears of a swine flu outbreak in the State by taking all possible precautionary measures to fight it’s outbreak in Assam.
With China seemingly on a dam–constructing spree over the Brahmaputra, including one near the point where the river enters India, the government has given the go–ahead for a big hydropower project in Arunachal Pradesh to mark India’s stake in a river that is in many ways a lifeline of the strategic northeast. The government has given clearance to the 800 MW Tawang–II hydropower project in Arunachal Pradesh this week, paving the way for its implementation, according to officials. The project had been pending clearance a long time.
NAZIRA: With the help of a few corrupt officials of forest department, a few stone quarries are illegally running at Bihubor of Nazira sub–division. It may be mentioned that Bihubor is famous as a natural
GANGTOK: Sikkim is the second–smallest State in India in terms of area after Goa. It is also the least populated in the country with just 6,00,000 people. Yet, in some matters, this Himalayan State towers over others, leading the way where the rest of India falters. Among the most innovative schemes undertaken in this State is the Comprehensive Annual and Total Check–up for Healthy (CATCH) Sikkim. This programme is aimed at tracking the health status of people in the State, so prevention, rather than cure, can become the order of the day when it comes to public health.
GUWAHATI: The Assam government has so far not been able to provide safe drinking water mainly to all the rural households in the State. At a time when the Central government is giving thrust on providing safe drinking water to all the rural households in the country, Assam’s present scenario in this front paints a dismal picture. About 640 water supply schemes across the State’s rural areas have been lying non–functional for long. Leave aside the implementation of new safe drinking water supply schemes, the Public Health Engineering (PHE) department, which is responsible for providing safe drinking water to the State’s households, is even running out of sufficient fund needed for the repair of the non–functional water supply schemes.
GUWAHATI: There is no let up in the problem of land erosion caused by the Brahmaputra and its tributaries in Assam. Official records stated that the State lost 46,939 bighas of land due to erosion caused
