Updated, Oct. 29, 2023. 8.15 PM.

Assam government is all set to give a major infrastructure boost in the education sector. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in a social media post informed that four thousand state-of-the-art schools will be constructed in the state by 2028. Mr. Sarma along with Education Minister Ranoj Pegu held a review meeting today in this direction. The Chief Minister mentioned that a target has been set to build two new schools every day for the next 5 years.

There is no respite from flood fury in the state. Over 3 lakh people are affected due to floods in 21 districts. Several rivers including the Brahmaputra are flowing above the danger level in many areas.

Surging water inundated new areas today in many places including Darrang and Majuli districts. Nearly 700 people are taking shelter at temporary relief camps at Chirang, Dibrugarh and Tamulpur. District administrations are providing essential food and other materials in flood-hit areas.

Over 25 thousand hectare of agricultural land is also submerged in the state.

According to the reports of Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) Lakhimpur is the most severely affected district, with 47,400 people dealing with floodwaters, followed by Dhemaji district with 41,000 people, Golaghat district with 28,000 people , 21,500 in Sivasagar district and Sonitpur district with 17,800 people.

Furthermore, in the last 24 hours one person also died after drowning in floodwaters in Sivasagar district of Assam, which took the death toll to 15 in the state this year.

Assam C.M. Himanta Biswa Sarma. File Photo.

The Assam Cabinet headed by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday “created” four “new” districts “to enhance decentralisation of governance and better convergence of the line departments”. The districts were merged with their parent districts in December 2022 to facilitate the delimitation of Assembly and Parliament constituencies.

The four districts are Bajali, Biswanath, Hojai, and Tamulpur.

These districts were, however, merged with their parent districts in December 2022 to facilitate the delimitation exercise that was finalised a few days ago. The number of Assembly and Parliament seats were unchanged at 126 and 14 respectively but the boundaries of most were reshaped while a few were renamed.

Announcing the decision after the 100th Cabinet meeting, the Chief Minister said Bajali district would encompass the Bajali and Bhawanipur-Sorbhog Assembly constituencies, Biswanath district would comprise the Biswanath, Gohpur, and Behali Assembly seats, Hojai district– the Binakandi, Lumding, and Hojai seats, and Tamulpur district — the Tamulpur and Goreswar Assembly seats.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday alleged that the north-east region has suffered from “geographical isolation, political instability and imbalanced development” for 70 years due to the previous “Congress governments’ intentional ploys to divide and rule”.

He also claimed that several conflicts in the region that lasted for 70 years were “resolved” in nine years of the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre.

“Be it the Bodo, Karbi conflict in Assam; the issues of Brus in Mizoram or the NLFT insurgency in Tripura, many such discords have been extinguished under leadership of Hon PM,” Mr Sarma said on Twitter.

In the last nine years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has “extensively focused on connecting and uniting the region, he said.

“The relentless focus on connectivity is not restricted to building physical linkages but winning the faith of the people by cementing emotional linkages,” the chief minister said in a series of tweets.

Mr Sarma also said PM Modi visited the north-east region “60 times and his council of ministers 400 times” in the last nine years.

“No Central Government, since 1947, has invested so much political capital in a region, where some states send just one MP to the Lok Sabha”, he wrote on the microblogging site.

“For 70 years, North East suffered from geographical isolation, political instability and imbalanced development, intentional ploys to divide and rule by Cong govts,” he alleged.

He also referred to Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s visit to the border village of Kibithoo in Arunachal Pradesh in April, where he launched the ‘Vibrant Village’ programme.

“In 2023, for the first time a Union HM (Home Minister) stayed overnight in an Arunachal town close to China border and spent a night in Nagaland,” Mr Sarma said.

During the current NDA rule, the “culture of flying visits has ended and so has the culture of NE leaders travelling to Delhi asking for funds”, he claimed.

“Since 2014, ₹ 3.64 lakh crore has been spent on the region under the Gross Budgetary Support Scheme of the Union Budget”, he said.

Mr Sarma, the convenor of the BJP-led North East Democratic Alliance, asserted that boundary issues among the states in the region are “nearing amicable resolution”.

“Not just insurgency, we had infighting. Ad hoc formation of northeastern states by the Congress meant states were fighting with states on boundary issues for 50 years or more. Most such matters involving Assam, Arunachal, Meghalaya & Nagaland are nearing amicable resolution,” he said.

During the last nine years, there has been a “74 per cent reduction in insurgency” and an “89 per cent drop” in civilian deaths in the north-east, he claimed.

”Geographical application of AFSPA (The Armed Forces Special Powers Act ) has been greatly reduced, not due to a cottage industry agitating against it but due to an improved security climate’,” he said.

From 1947 to 2014, expenditure on infrastructure projects in the North East was ₹ 2 lakh crore but from 2014 till date, this figure stands at ₹ 7 lakh crore, Mr Sarma claimed.

The national highway network has expanded 86 per cent in the last nine years, the allocation for rail expansion in the region has increased by 263 per cent and for the first time sever, all seven sister states will be connected by a common rail network with 2000 km of tracks either being laid or upgraded at a cost of ₹ 75,000 crore, he said.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted extremely heavy rainfall activity over Northeast India and Sikkim.

It said, heavy to very heavy rainfall is likely over Sub-Himalayan West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Bihar during next two days.

IMD has also forecast heavy to very heavy rainfall over Uttarakhand during next four days.

The weather office said, normal rainfall activity is likely over the country except Gangetic West Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha, where it is likely to be below normal during next two days.

Senior BJP leaders of 12 states in east and northeast India met in Guwahati on Thursday to strategise on the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The meeting is being attended by BJP’s national general secretary BL Santosh, Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma, Tripura CM Manik Saha, party MPs and MLAs, and state unit presidents, among others. Strengthening the organisation and election strategy were among the key issues that will be discussed at the day-long meeting, BJP’s Assam president Bhabesh Kalita told the media.

“Our goal is to ensure the return of Narendra Modi as the prime minister for the third consecutive term and we are working towards that end,” he told reporters before the meeting. BJP’s in-charge for Assam Baijayant Panda said his party does not prepare only before the elections but stays in touch with the people throughout the year. “This particular meeting will discuss organisational issues in all state units in the east and northeast,” he added.

Before the meeting, the BJP leaders paid their obeisance to Jana Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee on the occasion of his birth anniversary at the party’s state headquarters. There are a total of 142 Lok Sabha seats in these 12 states and in 2019, BJP won 68 of them.

The eight northeastern states have a total of 25 Lok Sabha seats with Assam having the highest of 14. Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur and Tripura have two seats each, while Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim have one seat each. Among the eastern states, West Bengal has 42 seats, Bihar has 40 seats, Odisha has 21 and Jharkhand has 14 seats. The meeting is also likely to discuss the assembly elections in Mizoram, which would be due later this year. BJP leaders of the northern, central and western states will meet in New Delhi on July 7, and those of the southern states in Hyderabad on July 8.

Eminent Assamese singer and sister of legendary singer Dr Bhupen Hazarika, Sudakshina Sarma died here on July 3 after a prolonged illness.

Sarma, 89, breathed her last at Gauhati Medical College and Hospital where she was was admitted.

As per sources, she was suffering from Aspiration Pneumonia with sepsis and pressure sores. Sudakshina Sarma was born at Guwahati in 1934, her father-in-law had given her the name “Sudakshina” after she wed poet and composer Dileep Sarma.

She is known for singing numerous well-known songs, such as Kotha Aru Xur, Jetuka Bolere, and Xaratkalor Rati.