Skip to content Skip to navigation

Coronavirus scare: BTC polls postponed

Guwahati: The Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) election, scheduled for 4 April next, has been postponed indefinitely. State Election Commissioner Alok Kumar on Friday informed that the polling for the council is being deferred in the wake of coronavirus outbreak in the country.

Earlier, the Assam government had asked the State electoral authority to defer the BTC polls. The opposition parties too urged the authority to postpone the polling. The Congress along with some other parties sent memorandums for necessary action.

Assam Governor Jagdish Mukhi on Friday appealed to the people to whole-heartedly support and adhere to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for voluntary observance of a self-imposed 'Janata curfew' on 22 March. He urged all countrymen to stay at home from 7 am to 9 pm and lend their efforts to save the country from the Covid-19 scourge. Commenting on the global coronavirus outbreak, Governor Mukhi said that the virus has had a cascading effect on humanity with various nations having advanced health science presently on toes trying to study the nature of the virus and come out with an antidote.

“In this challenging scenario, the global scientific fraternity has suggested that social distancing and avoidance of any kind of social gathering is the best and most effective means to keep the virus infection at bay,” said the Governor, adding that the pandemic is a global problem and large scale mass awareness is the only viable option for building a well-concerted peventive against it.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday called on Governor Mukhi at Raj Bhawan and apprised him about various initiatives taken by Assam government across the State to deal with the outbreak.

Add new comment

Random Stories

Indo-Pak ODI in Guwahati: India win by 5 wickets

5 Nov 2007 - 9:46am | pbaruah
The blazing forms of captain Mohender Singh Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh have pave the way for the Team India’s victory in the First Indo-Pak ODI series on Monday in Guwhati.The boys in blue won by 5...

Rights body concern over Jaiklong arrest

24 Sep 2014 - 6:27am | AT News
Amid simmering protest over the arrest of Jaiklong Brahma, the Amnesty International India has asked the Assam government to release the Kokrajhar journalist and guarantee him a fair trial meeting...

BTC session uproar over VCDC

14 Oct 2015 - 7:09pm | Hantigiri Narzary
The BTC autumn session saw an uproar and disrupted for around fifteen minutes among the ruling and opposition members in the BTCLA autumn session over the formation of Village Council Development...

Hail Obama as the leader of the new world

6 Nov 2008 - 3:34am | gpnarua
The election of Barrack Obama today as the president of USA symbolises the rise of a new world order. He stands for the change of perception of the people. His emergence signifies that in a modern...

Other Contents by Author

  This report iSiliguri: In a solemn ceremony held at Salesian College Siliguri, North Bengal received its first Psychology Lab, Wellness Studio and Wellness Woods on 10th February 2023. Located in Taverna Block of Salesian College, Psychology Lab is a facility for research, psychological testing and diagnostics. Wellness studio is a counseling centre opened to both students and anyone who requires wellness therapy. The Psychology department at Salesian College, started in 2012, is the only College under North Bengal University’s 64 affiliate colleges, offering degree courses in Psychology both in the Undergraduate and Graduate level. “The Psychological Lab and Wellness...
The Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary in Assam's Marigaon district is known for its high density of one-horned rhinoceros and is also an important habitat for various bird species. The Guwahati Wildlife Division of the Assam Forest Department and biodiversity conservation organization Aaranyak recently conducted the third annual waterbird census at the sanctuary. With active participation from a range of individuals and organizations, the census recorded 56 species of waterbirds with a total count of nearly 8,200 individuals, including both migratory and resident birds. Over 30 people, including forest department staff, Aaranyak members, and volunteers, took part in the census. The main...
The Kokrajhar LitFest, a literary festival organized by the government of Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) in Assam, India, concluded on Sunday with a valedictory ceremony at the Bodofa Cultural Complex. The festival, which was held over three days, featured prominent poets and writers from various languages and focused on promoting peace and harmony through literature. The theme of this year's event was "literature for peace and harmony," and it included discussions on various topics such as poetry, Aijwfwrni Garang, and Angw Alap. The valedictory ceremony was presided over by Prof Anil Boro, chairman of the organizing committee, and featured Biswajit Daimary, Speaker of the Assam...
The Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court will hear cases 562/2012, 876/2014, 311/2015, and 68/2016, brought by the Asom Samyukta Mahasangh of Assam, represented by Motiur Rahman and 102 Khilonjiya tribal organizations, against the Government of India, the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of External Affairs, the Election Commission, the Registrar General of India, the Government of Assam, and the All Assam Students' Union. The cases were previously heard by two-judge benches of Justices Rohinton Fali Nariman and Ranjan Gogoi in 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016, but were referred to a five-judge Constitution bench for final trial because the defendants were unable to provide sufficient...
Dibrugarh: Prof. Chandan Kumar Sharma from Tezpur University hosted the Northeast release of Yale University Press' award-winning Genetically Modified Democracy at Dibrugarh University on Friday. The book release was part of a three-day workshop called Sustainable Futures: Agriculture, Ecology and Conservation in Northeast India. It took place on December 14-16 in Guwahati and Dibrugarh University. Dr. Aniket Aga is an associate professor of environmental studies at Ashoka University. His research interests are in science and technology studies, democratic politics, and agrarian studies. He works on questions of environmental justice, food democracy, and sustainable agriculture. The...
At the Sanctuary Wildlife Awards ceremony in Mumbai last night, environmentalist Rituraj Phukan was honoured with a Sanctuary Wildlife Service Award. The Nagaon based Climate Reality Leader is a renowned environmental writer, adventurer and conservationist who has represented the region and country in numerous global climate change events.  The loudest applause of the night was for 23 year old Munmuni Payeng, who won the Young Naturalist Award for her work with grassroots communities. It must be mentioned that she is the daughter of Padma Shree Jadav Payeng, famous as the Forest Man of India. Eminent conservation scientist Dr. Vibhu Prakash, whose is known for his pioneering work...
Arvind Ojha was an experimentalist choosing to dedicate his life to social changemaking through education, working with children, making institutions and keeping people and organisations together. Someone very forthcoming to dialogue and collaborate with youth. Perhaps something that kept him innovating with community for over 40 years in social sector. He was an artist, storyteller and a social changemaker. In his early years he wrote extensively. Prose and poetry were his forms of storytelling. He used camera to capture his times and stories, principally focusing on desert. Later years, he committed to working with communities of Thar desert in the remote places and contexts. His...
Guwahati: The main petitioner in the Supreme Court of India with the demand to update the 1951 National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam has lodged a police complaint against information technology firm Wipro alleging the misappropriation of a huge amount of public money in process.  Assam Public Works (APW), which continues raising voices against the ethnic militant outfits along with religious terrorists and Illegal migrants in the region, filed a first information report at Paltanbazar PS, Guwahati- 781024 on Friday, where the influential civil rights group has made the NRC Directorate also a party. The non-government organisation, which has also been working for the...
Guwahati: A Career Awareness Workshop was organized by the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Assam Don Bosco University School of Technology on 3rd September,2022 at Dharapur Higher Secondary School, Dharapur. The welcome speech of the workshop was given by Utpal Sarma, Principal of Dharapur Higher Secondary School. The resource persons for the workshop were Dr. Buljit Buragohain, a prominent career counsellor of the state and Head, Department of Mechanical Engineering of Assam Don Bosco University School of Technology and Pranjal Sarma, Assistant Professor of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Apart from clearing the...
Dibrugarh/Dhemaji: Historical, mythological conclusions and anthropological studies have proven Gorkhas to be not just indigenous but also aborigines of the Himalayan mountain range and we are progenies of an aboriginal community so the Government of Assam should soon declare Gorkhas as an indigenous community of Assam through gazette notification and create Gorkha Autonomous Council (GAC) for overall constitutional security and prosperity. This was stated by GACDC chairperson Harka Bahadur Chetry while interacting with media persons on Sunday at Dibrugarh airport on his arrival from New Delhi after receiving the prestigious ‘Pillar of Society’ international award conferred by an INGO...