CM Tarun Gogoi wants local time zone for Assam; says it would help state better utilise sunlight

GUWAHATI: Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has proposed a local time zone that would be at least by 60 minutes ahead of the Indian standard time (IST) and help the state save energy by better utilising sunlight.

Assam’s tea gardens and oil establishments already have a system of local timings as the sun rises earlier in the Northeast than in the rest of the country. Working hours in tea plantations and in the oil sector start at 8 am and 7 am, respectively.

In the tea gardens, this system has been in practice since the British days. In government offices in Assam, the official timing is from 10 am to 5 pm. Gogoi said Assam would advance working hour by an hour. “The local timing time will save energy and increase the productivity,” he added.

IST is five-and-a-half hours ahead of the Greenwich Mean Time. According to experts, there is a two-hour difference in time when the sun rises in India’s east and when it does in the west.

According to prominent film maker Jahnu Barua, one of the main proponents of a separate time zone, the Centre had never bothered to look into the problems of having just one time zone. The absence of a time zone that suits the local requirements has led to problems such as a sense of alienation, imbalance in biological clock, wastage of electricity and loss in productivity, he said. This has resulted in the Northeast losing out on both human and capital development, Barua said.

There is a feeling that the western part of India is placed advantageously in the utilization of daylight, he added. According to an estimate, since independence, the Northeast suffered a productivity loss of 25 years and 10 months because of India maintaining a single time zone. In 100 years, the region will be 54 years behind in productivity, some experts estimate.

Experts have cited the examples of countries like Russia, the US and Canada which have separate time zones. Bangladesh has advanced its time by 90 minutes.