Aiming to monitor the ambient air quality situation of the State, the Pollution Control Board, Assam has submitted a proposal to the Central Pollution Control Board for installation of 24 new stations, under National Air Quality Monitoring Programme, (NAMP) covering all the district head quarters, including four locations of Special Industrial interest. PCBA already has 11stations to monitor ambient air quality in the state, including four in Guwahati, data from which is being collated into a comprehensive format.

Confusion marks the fate of India's proposal to include endangered Majuli Island in World Heritage Site List, with the 32nd session of the World Heritage Committee, winding up inscription of new sites yesterday. At least 19 cultural sites and eight natural sites were added this year.

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In an ambitious project to augment the health services in the country, the Union government will equip the Golden Quadrangle with effective health care facilities in the form of extensive trauma care project. The State sharing a considerable part of the Quadrangle would benefit by the plan. The Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Anbumani Ramadoss, on a visit to the State to address the convention of Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA), announced this at a press conference today. The convention was held at Veterinary Ground, Khanapara.

Mechanisation of the farm sector and efficient diffusion of appropriate technology at the grassroots would be thrust areas for the Assam Agriculture Department. They would involve a team of skilled human resource base, including administrators and agri-scientists. Speaking at a press conference Pramila Rani Brahma, the State Agriculture Minister asserted that such a strategy was necessary to bring much needed growth to the almost stagnant agri-sector.

Petrol pumps in the greater Guwahati area will remain closed for 24 hours from 5 am of July 9 in protest against the move of the oil companies to phase out normal petrol and replace the same with the premium brand, which is costlier. The Greater Guwahati Unit of the North East India Petroleum Dealers' Association, in a release, said that as the next phase of agitation, the petrol pumps of Guwahati would stop purchasing any petroleum product from the oil companies for three days with effect from July 12.

Noted sanitation and drainage expert Dr Binoy Kumar Das is of the opinion that rise in the size of built-up areas is a major cause for the failure of the Guwahati drainage system. Dr Das is one of the architects of the city's 1971 drainage and water supply master plan. Talking to this correspondent, he said that there was no short cut to remove the havoc caused by improper provision of storm drainage in the Guwahati Metropolitan Development (GMD) area.

In a move that is likely to boost rural healthcare facility in Assam, Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Anbumani Ramadoss will hand over mobile phones to Auxiliary Nursing Midwifes (ANMs) at Guwahati on Tuesday. The occasion is convention of Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) that gets underway on July 8. The event would see Director of National Rural Health Mission GC Chaturvedi signing an MoU with Emergency Management and Research Institute, an emergency management service operating in the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode.

GUWAHATI, July 6

Guwahati Mechanical Division of the Water Resources Department (WRD) is engaged in resectioning of the Bharalu and the Mora Bharalu rivers since February last at an estimated cost of Rs 1.3 crore under a Guwahati Development Department (GDD)-sponsored scheme. Sources in the WRD said that removal of silt from the Bharalu is completed in its reach between the Jonali PWD RCC Bridge on the RG Baruah Road and Bishnupur behind the Arya Vidyapeeth College. Between Bishnupur and Bharalumukh, the riverbed below the bridges over the river too has been cleaned..