Editor,
Of late your paper has been reporting about the change of text books from class I to class X for the academic year 2018 onwards under MBOSE. I am a parent of a Class X student under MBOSE and would like to put my suggestion before the Board that Class X books are linked with Books of Class IX hence I request the Board officials to review the decision for changing the Class X test book but to continue with the old text book this year and change the text book for Class IX for the academic year 2018 and for Class X for the academic year 2019 in the best interest of the students.
Yours etc.,
Dev Raj
Shillong-6
Death of winter in Giuwahati
Editor,
For someone born and raised in Guwahati, having experienced the wonderful yet harsh winters all his life, it’s agonizingly to witness the slow death of winter year on year. December has ended, we’ve stepped into January and Guwahatians have barely felt the typical chill associated with these months. It’s all the more frightening to see other parts of the state experiencing a rather normal cold winter and the mercury not even dipping here to single digit for once so far. So, who killed winter in Guwahati?
What has been happening in Guwahati city in the name of urbanisation & development in the last decade or so, is scary to say the least. One need not be an environmentalist to point out the apparent causes that have driven us to this despairing situation we are in today. Let’s talk about some of the most obvious causes that are entirely man-made and unless corrective measures are taken, the cold winter months in the city could well be a thing of the past pretty soon.
Firstly, unabated construction of residential flats across the city has led to a substantial reduction of green cover in the city. The cutting down of large expanses of CO2 absorbing trees & plants seem to have started making big time impact on the ecology. By removing forests, we also have effectively removed the natural systems that absorb carbon. Real Estate business is booming and the strong lobby in collusion with the government authorities has flouted norms with impunity and unleashed a systematic ruination process of the city’s ecosystem without giving two hoots about its dangerous impact on the weather patterns.
Secondly, vehicular density of the city is one of the highest in the country with more than 1 million vehicles registered with DTO (Kamrup) as per recent data. Add to it another 10,000 vehicles coming in daily from nearby states of Tripura, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram & Manipur and you have the perfect recipe for disaster. These vehicles apart from choking the city roads, emit seriously harmful gases like hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide etc. that get easily trapped & retained in the ozone layer due to the absence/insufficiency of green cover within the city. But despite this, more than 300 vehicles get registered in the city every day on an average and it’s dispiriting to see no controls/actions/policies on the part of the authorities concerned to stop, change or improve things. The continuous abuse inflicted on the city by its own populace coupled with perpetual neglect from the authorities is a heads up to the future generations of the hellish times ahead with possibly no winter existing at all.
Thirdly, the burgeoning population of the city is a pressing issue that needs to be dealt with immediately and taken head-on. The estimated population of the city is a little over 2 million with an average yearly increase of 0.14 million. The gradual and unrestrained growth in the city’s population is no less an irritant than its vehicle population and is critically linked to the previous two causes. The necessity to accommodate this ever-multiplying population has majorly contributed to the Real Estate boom and constantly increasing vehicle density.
Urbanisation is never a scourge nor is acquiring a residential property or owning a car. But the manner in which these things have taken shape in Guwahati city in the last few years is definitely a concern. The gradual surge in temperature of the city irrespective of season, major alterations in weather pattern and the overall ecosystem, the slow and painful death of the once prominent winter are some of the prices that generations, present and future would have to pay heavily.
Yours etc.,
Subhasish Das,
Via email