GUWAHATI, June 19: The Assam government will soon sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Meghalaya-based North East Space Applications Centre (NESAC) for detailed surveillance of various aspects, including early prediction on natural calamities and disasters such as floods and lightning besides crucial data on diseases such as malaria and Japanese Encephalitis.
“We have sought an action plan to take Assam’s development journey through satellite images and data which NESAC will provide. The state government will sign an MoU with NESAC for utilising its services in detecting encroachments, predicting natural disasters and compiling epidemic data,” Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma informed reporters here on Friday.
Claiming that the satellite data would have a wider application across various sectors, Sarma said that through satellite pictures provided by NESAC, we can ascertain whether any border encroachments have taken place or whether forest land or hill areas have been encroached.
On the other hand, speaking on gender parity status of Assam in regard to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Index of 2020-21 released by NITI Aayog, Sarma said a request has been made to the Aayog to put forth a detailed discussion considering the status of women who traditionally enjoying greater freedom in Assam.
According to the SDG Index, Assam has performed “worst in gender equality” (SDG 5) and ranked lowest among all states.
“Assam has migrated from an aspirant in 2018 (with a score of 48) to a performer in 2021 (with a score of 57). Then again, Assam’s performance was based on National Family Household Survey (NFHS) 4, which is a survey conducted in 2014 and 2015, and not NFHS 5. So, our performance was assessed on dated data,” Sarma clarified, while pointing out the discussions floating around in regard to the state featuring among the bottom three states in the SDG Index.