A government panel formed to review the demand for a separate time zone for the northeast recommended against it citing “strategic reasons”. This has been a longstanding demand owing to the fact that the sunrise and sunset timings in the northeast are much ahead of the Indian Standard Time, leading to a loss of working hours.
ThePrint asks: Will separate time zone for northeast increase efficiency or logistical chaos, alienation?
People of northeast are becoming alienated because the Centre doesn’t care for their convenience
Award-winning film director from Assam
The government has, time and again, given baseless excuses on this subject. Russia has 11 time zones, the US has 6 time zones, and Mexico has 3. How do they operate this smoothly?
I have been fighting for a separate time zone for over 25 years now and am fed up. Every justification that the government comes up with in order to deny a separate time zone for the region has an easy counter.
They say farmers will suffer if the northeast gets a separate time zone because they will have a tough time adjusting. But farmers mostly operate according to the sun — their day begins with the sunrise. They do not care about the IST.
Similarly, airports or railways will not suffer because all airlines and trains function according to the local time.
Work productivity takes a hit because of this insistence to work according to the IST. Government offices open at 10 am, which is nearly noon in the northeast if you look at the sun. Nearly two hours of daylight is lost every day and according to my calculations, we have lost almost 27 years of productivity since independence.
The social life of the office-goers also suffers because by the time they leave office, it is already very dark and they don’t get to go out with family and enjoy. The people of the northeast are growing more and more alienated by the day because they realise that the central government doesn’t care for them and their convenience.
Separate time zones will lead to a lot of chaos, especially in railway schedules
Railway expert
There is no reason why we should have a separate time zone for the northeast. The country’s time zone has been decided based on the geographical centre of the country, equidistant from the north and the south. This centre may be slightly away from the eastern coast of the country—but doesn’t necessarily imply major inconvenience.
The distance between the eastern coast and the western coast of India is a little over 2,000 km. This is nothing compared to the distance between the US eastern and western coast, which is why they have six time zones. Not only does this make the Indian demand for a separate time zone unreasonable, but purposeless.
I am certain that people residing in certain western states also suffer because of the sunrise and sunset gap. But ultimately, if we are to live as a nation, we have to compromise somewhere.
If we do go ahead with a separate time zone for the northeast, it will lead to a lot of chaos and misunderstanding in the railway schedules. If every citizen starts operating according to their time zones, then this country can never function as one.
Not to forget, the percentage of illiteracy in this country is very high. If the idea is to benefit society, then those who lack literacy will face a lot of hurdles.
Govt reasoning for not allowing separate time zones should not be casually dismissed
Former General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Indian Army’s Northern Command
This question is not easy to answer. If there was a simple solution, we would have arrived at it long ago.
Some advantages of a separate time zone are obvious. If the sun rises at 4 am in Nagaland, people are at work by 6 am, but offices, banks, and state institutions open at timings more suited to Delhi, which has an economic and social cost for people of the northeast. The National Institute of Advanced Studies has estimated that advancing the IST by half an hour would result in saving 2.7 billion units of electricity every year.
The government informed the Lok Sabha Wednesday that it had decided against separate time zones for “strategic reasons”. Although no details have been spelt out, the government’s reasoning should not be casually dismissed. One of the reasons for the longest-running insurgency in India has been a feeling among the people of the northeast that there is a psychological chasm between them and the rest of India. Would a separate time zone deepen that chasm?
In my view, much more reasoned debate is required on the subject. A debate that gives equal emphasis to economic, social and security aspects, and is not merely shrouded by “strategic reasons”.
If Indians can adjust to demonetisation and GST, they can adjust to separate time zones
Arunachal Pradesh tour operator
The time difference between parts of the northeast and mainland India (such as Gujarat) is nearly two hours. People in mainland India are removed from our woes because they do not understand the struggles that northeasterners have to go through because of this insistence on obeying the IST.
The sun rises at 4:30 am in summers and 5:30 am in winters, and we go to work at 10. No one sleeps beyond 6 am here. So, that’s effectively five hours of daylight lost, which leads to productivity going down the drain.
This isn’t an emotional issue, it is merely based on practical requirements. There will be no chaos whatsoever as a result of this because it’s just a matter of shifting the work hours.
The notion that people will struggle to adjust is also quite arbitrary, because the government keeps coming up with radical changes every now and then: demonetisation and GST, to name a few. If the citizens of the country could adjust to those, then a separate time zone is hardly an issue.
Ultimately, it comes down to the willingness and priority of the government. A separate time zone will not only increase the productivity of the people of the northeast, but also contribute to the overall productivity of the country.
By Fatima Khan, journalist at ThePrint. You can follow her on twitter @khanthefatima.