[Assam] Separate time-zone plea for NE rejected (The Assam Tribune, 21.08.2007)

[Buljit Buragohain]

Separate time-zone plea for NE rejected
>From Kalyan Barooah
 NEW DELHI, Aug 20 – The Centre has turned down the demand for a separate time-zone for the North Eastern Region, favouring instead advancing of work timings by one hour in Eastern region. In a Rajya Sabha reply to a question, Union Minister of Science and Technology Kapil Sibal said a committee constituted by the Department of Science and Technology considered the demand for two time zones. The Committee considered that given the longitudinal difference between the extreme regions in the country, technically it is possible to have two time zones.

But these will be five hours and six hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), respectively, in place of the current uniform IST, which is five and half hour ahead of GMT, Sibal said.

This will be in accordance with international norms. However, it was noted that this will enable savings in daylight hours only by half and hour for the eastern States, whereas there will be a corresponding loss of half an hour in the central and western States.

The Committee observed that this does not provide any major advantage, yet on the other hand, pose several difficulties in terms of differential timings for airlines, railways, radio and TV, STD services among others, the Minister said.

A more prudent and effective solution would be to advance the work timings by one hour in eastern States, which could be implemented through administrative instructions, Sibal suggested.

   
   
  (The Assam Tribune,21.08.2007



       
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