Another crucial problem faced by people of Northeastern part of India has been raised through an online petition, which draws attention of citizens towards suffering of people of North-East states when they follow Indian Standard Time (+5.30GMT). The petition demands authorization be given to them to create NEST (North-East Standard Time) at +6.30GMT; it is expected to reduce hardship of 39 million people, and allow them to utilize daylight and decrease energy consumption and diseases. and BeyondHeadlines support the petition, which is reproduced below for BH readers. – Editor
Petition:
To:
Shri Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India
Shri. Tarun Gogoi, Chief Minister of Assam
Allow North-East states of India to create NEST (North-East Standard Time) at +6.30GMT
This petition is to draw attention towards another kind of plight North-East States suffer because of following the Indian Standard Time.
In North-East States, Sun rises and sets an hour early than what our clocks are set for at +5:30 as these EIGHT STATES are situated at the eastern most corner of the country and The time meridian for Indian Standard Time is situated at Allahabad, which is about 1400 km from east Assam & Arunachal Pradesh.
As North-East states follow Allahabad time meridian, they are not able to take advantage of daylight and have to wake-up & sleep one hour later. Alcohol consumption in Assam, highest in the country, is attributed to this phenomenon as one of the possible reasons also high incidence of other diseases is caused by not following the circadian rhythm.
Large population of North-East state work in tea gardens. The sunrise and set becomes crucial to their work culture and hence they follow a different time schedule introduced by Britishers, now known as “Bagan Time”, which is at +6:30GMT.
The industrial policy allows for change in the standard time, thus in tea gardens we have dual time and were IST and BG (“Bagan Time”) is written together and cause much confusion. If we allow North-East states to follow there own standard time that can be named as NEST (North-East Standard Time) at 6:30GMT; This will save lot of electricity, ensure leisure time for the workers, increase productivity and decrease diseases. World over bigger country like U.S. follow several time zones and some change the time twice in the year to utilize day light.
We request the Prime Minister of India and his cabinet colleagues, chief minister of Assam and member of Assam legislative assembly to take up this issue and create NEST for North-East States of India at +6.30GMT. We must officially allow Northeast states to follow their own standard time, as they already follow it in tea-gardens. This step will not only make all the North-East States know that they are cared for and help them to feel one with India, but also our commitment to strong federal structure of India would be re-enforced.
Looking forward to your early action.
[Note: The petition is available at Change.org, please sign it if you support the cause. Thanks]
