Agartala: Decade old debate on the demand of separate time zone for east and northeast of India has made a sharp division among the Members of Parliament (MPs) from the region in the back drop of political ideology.
Though Northeast MPs Forum are in the process to take up the matter with Prime Minister following a fresh move by Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi recently, yet CPI-M MP and senior Marxist leader of Tripura Khagen Das on Wednesday disagree with to set the issue on priority.
Das said northeast has been suffering from basic infrastructural deficiency like communication, health care, education and mainstreaming the common understanding but suddenly issue of separate time zone for east and north-east gained ground.
“Unless northeast develops at par with other regions how a separate time zone can make a miracle I could not understand?” he questioned and added nobody from Northeast MPs Forum contacted me for my view and stand on the issue. “I believe we are 39 MPs in both Loksabha and Rajyasabha from Northeast and our priority should be ensuring sustainable and strong communication network among all eight states of the region and press for opening up access to Chittagong sea port at the earliest for holistic development of the region,” Das opined.
He however, pointed out that they are not against the demand for a separate time zone for the east and northeast because the sun rises early in eastern part of India and it is largely wasted because work starts later in tandem with the rest of the country but setting up the issue at the top of the agenda would be a derailment from the core issues of the region.
“Except Guwahati none of the North-eastern state capital is well connected with railway network even after 67 years of our independence. We are still far behind in tele-connectivity, road, air and water connectivity and tap the potential of the region for economic growth,” he reiterated.
He recalled Tripura was the first state which realised the separate time zone for northeast in 2002. And the then Chief Secretary V Thulsidas had justified the demand in national forum with all scientific and economic interpretation.
Afterwards several times it was discussed at different forum and in 2009-10 Union home ministry had also proposed a separate time zone for the region accepting the estimation that every year, there is a loss of at least Rs 94,900 crore in Northeast because of redundant power consumption, Das recollected.
Justifying the demand of separate time zone for the region, Thulsidas put it in record if the offices start one hour ahead than national standard time so that we increase our overall productivity and save on energy.
He had also contemplated for ensuring the best use of sunlight and natural flow of air in all the government offices and public building and recommended to design new building and renovate old buildings considering energy efficiency but unfortunately it is remained in paper.
He argued the Indian Standard Time, set five-and-a-half hours ahead of the international Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), was introduced in 1947.
It was chosen with reference to a mid-point in the country, situated at 82 30′ longitude east and 23 11′ latitude north, passing through Allahabad district in India’s most populous state of Uttar Pradesh. Pre-independence India had two time zones.
In the East, Calcutta Time was 5:30:21 hours ahead of GMT, while Bombay Time in the West was 4:51:00 hours ahead of GMT but Calcutta Time was abandoned in 1948 and Bombay Time in 1955.
Thulsidas’ report was endorsed to central government by the then Tripura governor D N Sahay and Ministry of science and technology had formed a high-level committee to explore the feasibility of two time zones.
But it finally opposed creation of separate time zones, saying it would not provide any major advantage to the states.
On the contrary, the committee argued, such a move would actually pose difficulties due to the differential timings that would have to be done for airlines, railways and communications services.
The committee, however, recommended that individual state administrations could take such a step at local level through administrative notification and the issue was closed.
But after 12 years, the same issue with same argument gained ground through Assam Chief Minister. (UNI)
