Tripura NGO writes NE CMs and Governors to push for a separate time zone in 72nd NEC plenary

AGARTALA: A before the crucial 72^nd Plenary session of Northeast Council (NEC) to discuss development framework and projects, leading civil society organization of Tripura - ARPAN Society wrote all the Governors and Chief Ministers of eight Northeastern states and Minister of Development of Northeast Region (DoNER) demanding to push for a separate Time Zone.
Referring to a proposal of CSIR - National Physical Laboratory (CSIR-NPL), the custodian of Indian Standard Time (IST), ARPAN underlined that IST-I (Universal Time Coordinated-UTC+5.30 hrs), which is the present IST, and another IST-II (UTC+6.30 hrs) for Northeastern states and Andaman & Nicobar Island considering the timings of sunrise and sunset but it couldn’t roll further.
“NEC Plenary should resolve the rescheduling of working time at least two hours ahead of Indian Standard Time (IST) for NE states Until a separate time zone for Northeast is set. We found a missing link of optimum utilization of potential working hours in the region due to IST. The growth of Northeast could have been much better if we followed a separate working hour ahead of Allahabad time standard,” the letter pointed out.
It stated that geographically India extends 68⁰7E to 97⁰25E longitude with a spread of 29 degrees which amounts to a time difference of about 29 minutes and above. The difference in sunrise and sunset timings of Northeastern states and Delhi is an average of 1.30 hrs.
In summer, the sun rises in Arunachal Pradesh at 4 am and in other states of the region around 4.40 am but in Delhi it's 6 am. Naturally, sunset is also earlier in Northeast than in central and western parts of the country. The longitudinal difference of the regions in India not only results in loss of sun-shining hours and potential working time but also creates problems relating to the biological clock, digestion, and other health complications, the letter mentioned.
Scientifically, the first five hours of the day are considered as most valuable and potential in terms of work output, satisfaction, and happiness. Unfortunately, following the IST we shall start our day’s activity including business, public work, schools, and colleges at least 5-6 hours after the sun rises and it continues two hours after sunset.
“The practice made our brilliant workforce fatigued, under productive, and dissatisfied, which affected the family and social life of the individual and became counterproductive in public order,” it observed and added in Paris Agreement India committed to work for achieving net zero emissions, a separate time zone will help to save conventional energy.
The letter suggested Northeastern states need to decide to start the day, offices, and educational institutions at 9 am during winter and 8.30 am in the summer and close by 5 pm and 4.30 pm respectively with an hour of leisure in between the working hours that give a big push to the development index of Northeast.