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From deputy police commissioner to zilla parishad CEO, this Assam district is run by women

Snippets from the vibrant Northeast that capture politics, culture, society and more in the eight states.

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New Delhi: From the deputy commissioner, superintendent of police (SP), the deputy superintendent of police (DSP) to the chief executive officer of the zila parishad, Assam’s Nalbari district has women officers in nearly all its top government posts.

A report by The News Mill said Assam Civil Service (ACS) officer Purabi Konwar was all set to join as the first woman deputy commissioner of the district. She was CEO of the zila parishad in Dhubri district prior to this.

While Nalbari SP is IPS officer Amanjeet Kaur, who was earlier posted as the deputy commissioner of police (traffic) in Guwahati, its DSP is Jupi Bordoloi.

Senior ACS officer Krishna Baruah, meanwhile, is the CEO of the district zila parishad.

Out of the seven revenue circles in the district, four are headed by women officers. There are also many women heading Nalbari’s social welfare, circle office and judiciary department — the district labour officer (Kabita Barman), district social welfare officer (Padmeswari Saikia), sub-registrar of revenue (Madhabi Kalita), sub-divisional agriculture officer (Lakhi Dutta) and others.

Local activist Devaprakash Bhagawati has been quoted as saying, “This is really something we are proud of. I hope Nalbari as a district can set an example in the entire country about how a bunch of women officers are running the administration with equal elan like their male counterparts.”


Also read: Assam snake ‘rediscovered’ 129 years after its last sighting by a British tea planter


Fish genus named after Manipur professor who discovered over 100 species

Vishwanath Waikhom, a retired professor of Manipur University, has discovered and described the maximum number of freshwater fishes than any other living fish taxonomist in India.

Recently, a newly-discovered genus of freshwater fish found in the Western Ghats of Maharashtra was named after him. While around four species of fish have already been named after him, this is the first time that a genus has been named.

Called Waikhomia hira, this new genus was discovered by a team of scientists from the Bombay Natural History, Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies, Modern College, Pune and the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune.

“The name ‘Waikhomia’ for the new genus is a tribute to professor Waikhom for his exemplary contributions to improving our knowledge on freshwater fish of Northeast India, and for promoting fish taxonomy as a science in the country,” Rajeev Raghavan, an assistant professor at the Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies, said.

Waikhom, who has discovered over 100 fish species in the last 30 years, was quoted as saying, “It is hard to discover a new fish genus. As such, getting the privilege of naming the new genus of the fish as ‘Waikhomia’ after my surname was a great moment for me.”

The first fish species he discovered was the Puntius jayarami in 1986. In 2015, Vishwanath was conferred the EK Janaki Ammal National Award in Taxonomy by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

Naga youth makes DIY drone to deliver medicines, essentials

An automobile engineering student from Nagaland’s Wokha has built a DIY (Do-It-Yourself) drone that can deliver medicines and essentials with zero contact.

Ponachan Y. Kikon, 21, who is a student at Nagaland’s Kelhoshe Polytechnic Atoizu had spent around 10 months building the device he calls ‘Project X’.

“I started from the basics, for my own learning. If you are trained by experts it will take a month. And if you have all the components available you can build in a day or two,” Kikon reportedly said.

The drone can carry medicines and essential items weighing 600 gms. The items can be detached with the help of a remote control.

“After gathering all the components, I thought it would be quite easy. How to make it fly was quite challenging,” he said, while also noting that his first attempts were not successful, forcing him to go back to researching and studying the dynamics.

He uploaded a video on YouTube after he successfully completed the project, receiving an overwhelming response from social media users.

Govt chose to dehumanise Nagas, says apex tribal body on AFSPA extension

The Naga Hoho, an apex tribal body in Nagaland, has slammed the central government’s decision to extend the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 in the state for six months.

A Union home ministry notification earlier this week had declared the whole of Nagaland a ‘disturbed area’ till December end. The government’s decision comes days after Nagaland Governor R. N. Ravi wrote to state Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio about the collapse of law and order in the state.

The “government of India” has failed to “take into account the ground reality but rather chooses to dehumanise the Naga people by using the most inhuman Act,” the Naga Hoho said.

The tribal body also added that the “imposition” of the Act has only proved the “iron hand of India and militarisation against the Naga people”.

“This inhuman law has lost its relevance in a civilised society and its applicability has no place in the modern world and therefore, this law must be repealed if the Government of India truly honours the peace process and a peaceful solution to the long Indo-Naga political talks,” it said.


Also read: Manipur’s titular king is poorest among Rajya Sabha’s 62 new MPs


 

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