Sushanta Talukdar

There is a 2-hour time lag in sun rise in eastern and western most corners of India

Due to a single IST, northeast lost Rs.94 cr. in electricity alone since Independence

Guwahati: People from many walks of life — academics, intellectuals, lawyers, teachers, youth, student and women organisations — in the northeast on Saturday demanded creation of a separate time zone for the seven northeast States. They said it was necessary to correct the anomalies forced on the people and economy of the region.

Placing the region in separate time zone would enable them to observe Daylight Saving Time (DST).

An open discussion on “Separate Time Zone for Northeast” organised by the K.C. Das Commerce College here resolved to launch a campaign and submit a memorandum to the Centre to place the demand.

Filmmaker Jahnu Barua, who mooted the idea for a separate time zone, argued through a detailed presentation that caught up within the existing single Indian Standard Time (IST), the northeast had suffered colossal losses in the last 62 years of independence. “It has created unproductive tendencies, more alienation, imbalance in biological clock, degeneration of society, wastage of electricity, loss in productivity and so on…” Mr. Barua said.

Based on 20 years of research on the matter, he pointed out that despite two hours time lag in sun rise in the eastern most and western most corners, the country continued to follow a single, undifferentiated time zone. “Having to follow the IST, the people of northeast are subjected to do all their day to day activities at wrong time. Waking up minimum two hours after sunrise, breakfast after minimum four hours of daylight, start of office hours only at middle of the day, lunch at three to four hours after midday, dinner after five to six hours of darkness and finally going to bed much after midnight.” He further showed that total wastage of electricity at homes and offices of the region since independence due to following of single time zone was to the tune of Rs.94,900 crore.

“Following IST, the northeast has gone behind by 25 years 10 months in productivity since independence. If it continues like this northeast would be behind by 54 years in productivity in 100 years.” Mr. Barua insisted that northeast time be based at longitude 105 degree east which is seven hours ahead of GMT and the Mainland Time at longitude 90 degree east which is six hours ahead of GMT.

All the three key speakers urged the Centre to take note of the fact that Bangladesh already advanced its time by 90 minutes compared to India to save electricity and encourage productive tendencies and to utilise sunlight better.

There were suggestions by several speakers to impress upon on all State governments of northeast, political parties to adopt resolution in their respective legislative Assemblies to demand a separate time zone so as to place the demand in a united voice.