Assam cabinet has approved the identification of five Assamese Muslim sub-groups – Gorias, Moriyas, Jolhas, Deshis and Syeds – as indigenous Assamese Muslim communities, tweeted Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

“At our weekly Assam Cabinet, we took several decisions pertaining to the scrapping of old vehicles, identification of 5 indigenous Muslim groups, exempting ex-servicemen & their widows from paying property tax, boosting renewable energy, and improving data access, etc,” Sarma said in a tweet.

The move will ensure their development in health, cultural identity, education, financial inclusion, skill development and women empowerment, added the chief minister. 

Assam Cabinet also took several decisions pertaining to the scrapping of old vehicles, exempting ex-servicemen and their widows from paying property tax, boosting renewable energy, improving data access, etc.

The Assam Cabinet decided to exempt ex-servicemen and their widows from paying property tax as a gesture of gratitude for their service to the nation. Bills to amend the Assam Municipal Act, 1956 and Guwahati Municipal Corporation Act, 1969 will be tabled in the state assembly to exempt ex-servicemen/widows from paying property tax as a gratitude for their service to the nation, Health Minister Keshab Mahanta said while briefing the media after the meeting.

The flood situation in Assam has improved during the past 24 hours. Assam State Disaster Management Authority informed that the number of affected districts has also come down to 28 from 30.

A total of 3510 villages are still under the flood water and over 2 lakh 65 thousand people have taken shelter in relief camps. The situation in the three districts of Barak valley continues to be critical. 

Justice Rashmin Manharbhai Chhaya on Thursday sworn in as the new Chief Justice of the Gauhati High Court.

The oath was administered by the Assam Governor Jagdish Mukhi.

Justice Chhaya who replaced Justice Kotiswar Singh has formerly served as a Judge in the Gujarat High Court.

Chhaya was born in Veraval, Gujarat, and pursued his B Com from MS University, Vadodara in 1981. Later in 1984, he obtained LLB Degree from Sir LA Shah College from Gujarat University.

Dignitaries like Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Assembly speaker Biswajit Daimary, along with Judges and advocate general were present at the swearing-in ceremony.

After the swearing-in ceremony, Sarma took to the micro-blogging site Twitter and said, ”On behalf of the people of Assam, I convey my best wishes to Hon’ble Justice Chhaya on taking over as the new Chief Justice of Gauhati High Court. A legal luminary with years of experience, I am confident his assuming the office will definitely aid our justice delivery system.”

The summer vacation in the schools in Assam was preponed by a week on Thursday due to the devastating floods in the state, an official said. Issuing a notification, Education Department Secretary Bharat Bhushan Dev Choudhury said the vacation will now start on June 25 and end on July 25, instead of July 1 to July 31.

The vacation has been rescheduled for all elementary, secondary, senior secondary and higher secondary schools across the state, he said. “Most of the districts in the state are affected due to severe flood situation.

Many schools are being designated as relief camps. A large number of schools are also affected and damaged due to flood, resulting in closure of schools causing academic loss,” Choudhury said.

Assam has become the 36th and final state to implement the One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) scheme. The ONORC scheme has played a pivotal role in ensuring subsidized food grains to National Food Security Act (NFSA) beneficiaries, especially migrant beneficiaries, during the last two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. It happens to be a one-of-its-kind citizen Centric initiative in the country which aims to make food security portable throughout the country.

The programme, which was launched in August 2019, is swiftly implemented in a short span of time and it covers about 80 Crore beneficiaries. The beneficiary-centric high-impact program intends to empower all the NFSA beneficiaries to become self-reliant for their food security anywhere in the country. It will be done by making their existing ration cards portable, which will enable them to seamlessly lift their entitled subsidized foodgrains (in part or full) from any Fair Price Shop of their choice.

This also enables their family members to lift the balance/required amount of food grains on the same ration card at their native/ any place from the FPS of their choice. About 71 Crore portable transactions (43.6 crores NFSA and 27.8 crore PM-GKAY transactions) have taken place under the ONORC scheme since its inception in August 2019, delivering food grains equivalent to about Rs. 40,000 Crore in food subsidy through portability.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma will visit flood-affected areas of Silchar and Barak Valley today. AIR correspondent reports that  the ongoing second spate of floods in the Barak Valley has now submerged the whole city of Silchar within a high velocity flood water stream getting continuously flown out of the river Barak. Water-level inside the city is now varying up to eight feet in height and increasing while the water level of the Barak river at Annapurnaghat is decreasing, as river water is freely coming inside the city from multiple points. All the roads of the city have turned into waterways. Dead bodies cannot be cremated as the Burning Ghats and Burial Grounds are all under water.

Water logging in all the roads has also led to the collapse of the medical facilities as nobody can approach those without plying boats through the city roads. The railway connection was washed out at Haflong Station earlier itself during the previous flood one-month back. Now roadways are also closed for landslides, land erosion, and water logging. Disconnected and water-marooned Barak Valley and its cities including Silchar are struggling for their life due to acute scarcity of drinking water. Disruption of power services has also led people to get disconnected from mobile and the internet.

Army, SDRF, and NDRF personnel are working round the clock for relief work but in view of the huge waterlogged population of three lakh, relief workers are very much in demand for evacuation. Getting a large portion of the water marooned three lakh people of the city of Silchar evacuated to nearby high lands and distributing water to the stranded people are the most crucial needs of the hour to save the thousands of lives who are in mortal danger now.

Ambubachi Mela, one of the largest religious gatherings of devotees in the famous Shaktipeeth Kamakhya temple, kicked off on Wednesday. The Kamrup (Metro) District Administration expects around 10 lakh devotees to throng the Mela at Guwahati’s famous Kamakhya Temple. Several devotees, sages, saints, and tantriks come from far to attend it and this year the fair will run from June 22 to June 26.

The doors of the temple will be closed on 22nd June and then on 26th June, the doors of the temple will be opened. Meanwhile, the Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Kamrup Metropolitan Department, Pallav Gopal Jha, has said that around 500 CCTV cameras have been installed in and around the Kamakhya Devalaya in Guwahati ahead of Ambubachi Mela 2022. During a press conference that took place in Guwahati on June 20, the DC informed that several guidelines regarding the celebration of Ambubachi have been issued.