NEW DELHI: India’s Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday announced reduction of the disturbed areas imposed under the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) in Nagaland, Assam and Manipur after decades.

A home ministry spokesperson, however, said the decision does not imply that the AFSPA has been completely withdrawn from the three insurgency-affected states but will continue to be in force in some areas of the three states.

In a series of tweets, Shah said: “In a significant step, GoI (Government of India) under the decisive leadership of PM Shri @NarendraModi Ji has decided to reduce disturbed areas under Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in the states of Nagaland, Assam and Manipur after decades.”

Thanks to PM @NarendraModi Ji’s unwavering commitment, our North-Eastern region, which was neglected for decades is now witnessing a new era of peace, prosperity and unprecedented development.

I congratulate the people of North East on this momentous occassion.

— Amit Shah (@AmitShah) March 31, 2022

The home minister said the reduction in areas under AFSPA is the result of the improved security situation and fast-tracked development due to the consistent efforts and several agreements to end insurgency and bring lasting peace in Northeast by the Modi government.

Reduction in areas under AFSPA is a result of the improved security situation and fast-tracked development due to the consistent efforts and several agreements to end insurgency and bring lasting peace in North East by PM @narendramodi government.

— Amit Shah (@AmitShah) March 31, 2022

The AFSPA has been in force for decades in the three northeastern states to assist the armed forces operating there to tackle insurgency.

The AFSPA empowers security forces to conduct operations and arrest anyone without any prior warrant besides giving immunity from arrest and prosecution to the security forces if they shoot someone dead.

There have been protests and demands for the complete withdrawal of the law from the Northeast as well as Jammu and Kashmir for its alleged “draconian” provisions.

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Officials warned that the water level in the Brahmaputra river was expected to rise by 11 cm (4.3 inches), two weeks after it burst its banks swamping more than 2,500 villages.

Assam, famous for its tea plantations, is hit by flooding every rainy season despite flood-control efforts.

Rights groups accuse corrupt officials of siphoning off funds meant for flood projects, resulting in shoddy construction of embankments which are often breached.

Floods have also inundated the Kaziranga National Park, home to the world’s largest concentration of one-horned rhinoceros, with an estimated 2,500 out of a total population of some 3,000 of the animals, was on the brink of extinction at the turn of the century.

Kaziranga park is also a Unesco World Heritage site. But this year’s monsoon rains have almost 85% of the park under water.
“Nine rhinos have drowned and over 100 other animals have been killed,” Atul Bora, Assam’s agriculture minister said.

With the park waist-deep in water, rhinos, elephants and deer have been forced to seek refuge on roads and in human settlements.
Dozens of other animals, including deer, buffalo and porcupines, have also been died – many due to drowning, although others were hit by vehicles as they attempted to escape the floodwaters.

Across Assam, heavy rain has submerged thousands of villages. Hundreds of relief camps have been set up to shelter those displaced.

This year’s floods come as India struggles to halt the spread of coronavirus, with more than one million cases reported across the country, the world’s third-largest case load.

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After the situation went out of control, Kamrup Deputy Commissioner Kailash Kartik along with police rushed to the spot and urged the patients to return to the centre so that the matter can be resolved through discussions.

After the officer assured them that all possible actions will be taken in the matter, the patients finally returned to the centre. In their allegation, they said they were not given proper assistance by the centre. Other than insufficient food and water, the bed was also torn and not up to the mark while 10-12 people were kept in a single room.

Reacting to the allegations, Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said if the patients are not happy with the facilities available there, then they can sign the undertaking and go under home quarantine.

The state on Friday crossed the 20,000 mark with 892 positive cases and the death toll reached 50 with two deaths.

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More than a million people were forced to flee their homes in Assam, northeast India after heavy flooding triggered by monsoon rains.

The Brahmaputra River, one of the largest rivers in the world which flows from Tibet into India and then into Bangladesh, burst its banks in Assam over the weekend, inundating more than 2,000 villages, and it was still raining on Monday.

Two people have died in separate incidents of drowning in the past 24 hours and more than one million people have been affected, according to a state government flood bulletin said.

Torrential rain hit at least 23 of Assam’s 33 districts and the federal water resources body said water levels in the Brahmaputra were expected to rise, with more rain forecast over the next three days.

The flood situation remains extremely grave with several embankments breached, according to an official

Most of the Kaziranga National Park, home to the rare one-horned rhino, was under water, authorities said.

Paramilitary personnel were deployed across the state for rescue operations and to ensure people maintain social distance in makeshift shelter camps to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, authorities said.

Assam has so far reported 7,492 coronavirus infections and 11 deaths.

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In light of rise in COVID-19 cases, Assam government decided to impose a complete lockdown in the entire Kamrup Metropolitan district in Assam. The lockdown will begin from the midnight of June 28 for the next 14 days, state health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on June 26. Weekend curfew will be enforced in Assam’s urban areas.

A 12-hour night-curfew – between 7 pm and 7 am – will be observed across the state from June 26 onwards. Medical stores will continue to remain open during the lockdown, Everything else will be shut. The Government also reimposed fresh lockdown in Guwahati from June 28. Invoking the Disaster Management Act 2005, the government issued a fresh order clamping “Total Lockdown” in Guwahati.

Assam is the worst-affected states in the northeast, with over 6,600 cases of COVID-19 recorded already. This comes at a time when India’s COVID-19 toll crosses 17,000 in 24 hours this morning. This is the largest single-day spike reported in India.

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After media reports claimed that Bhutan has stopped supply of irrigation water to farmers in Assam, the Bhutan Foreign Ministry in its statement issued on Facebook, clarified that the charges are “totally baseless” and are “deliberate attempts” to create misunderstanding between the people of Bhutan and Assam.

“It is a distressing allegation and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would like to clarify that the news articles are totally baseless as there is no reason why the flow of water should be stopped at this time. It is a deliberate attempt by vested interests to spread misinformation and cause misunderstanding between the friendly people of Bhutan and Assam.” the Bhutan Foreign Ministry said.

Even when the entire world is facing the COVID-19 pandemic, Baksa and Udalguri Districts in Assam continue to benefit from the water sources in Bhutan added the Bhutan government.

The foreign ministry has said since the lockdown, farmers of Assam have been unable to enter Bhutan to maintain the irrigation channels as is the usual practice and this has led to problems in water supply.

However, seeing the adverse situation faced by the farmers in Assam, the Samdrup Jongkhar District Officials have taken the initiative to repair the irrigation channels to ensure the smooth flow of water to Assam.

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