The need for a separate time zone
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: September 24 2011 -

Chingthou Keicha from the desk

It's a well known fact that the easternmost part and the westernmost part of the country have a difference of more than 2 hours in sunrise and sunset.

Despite of the large difference, normal activities like working and sleeping hours and meal timing more or less remain the same across the country as it has a single time zone.

As a result each of these activities in the North Eastern states gets delayed by almost two hours than those in the western states. The delay over the years in the availability and usability of daylight and dark hours had resulted in colossal loss for the NE states in all spheres.

In such situation, the need for a separate time zone for the North Eastern states arises.

The British railways took the first step in adopting a standard time by using the local mean time of Greenwich as a standard time for their routine operations which later became the international standard time by the name Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

With the earth divided into 360 longitudes which are distributed 180 eastward and 180 westward and the time difference between two longitudes is four minutes. Two time zones have a difference of 150 longitudes which sum up to 1 hour (15 x 4 = 60 minutes).

India has a longitudinal expansion with a difference of 29.30 - almost two hours (30 x 4 = 120 minutes). When a country functions on a single standard time based on its mean longitude, the people on its west are always in an advantageous position so far as the utilization of daylight is concerned.

People living in the western part of a country get to start their day either on time or earlier depending where in the west a particular area is situated.

As a result, they can utilize daylight hours effectively for productivity compared to those in the east and make the people living in the west of a time zone more productive, progressive and prosperous than the people living in its east.

One can easily differentiate between the eastern and western part of India by observing the western states like Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana and the eastern states like NE states, West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa and Jharkhand.

The NE which is situated in the far east, waste two or three hours of daylight every day having to function on the Indian Standard Time (IST) and thereby ends up being least productive, progressive and prosperous. In order to make the NE states more productive, progressive and prosperous, the NE states should seek a separate time zone.

The time has come for the NE states to press the centre for a separate time. The Union Home Ministry itself had proposed a separate time zone for the NE region in 2009-10 after many intellectuals voiced the demand.

Former Home Secretary GK Pillai had also urged the CMs and political leaders of the North Eastern States to press the Centre on the matter.

The proposal of the Home Ministry was not accepted by an inter-ministerial committee citing some technical reason after a brief discussion.

The National Physical Laboratory which is India's legal timekeeping institution had also rejected the idea of a separate time zone saying that it could cause inconveniences to the illiterate people.

It however recommended the Daylight Saving Time Scheme, exploiting daylight by advancing office timing which will have almost similar result with a separate time zone.

Be it a separate time zone or a Daylight Saving Time Scheme, the NE region needs advancing the clock in order to match its productivity, progress and prosperity with the rest of the country.

Although it would affect the habits of the people as they have to change their basic habits which are normally synced with the present Indian Standard Time (IST), the advancing of clock is badly needed for the NE region. Russia alone has nine time zones, US and Canada have six while United Kingdom and its overseas territories have eight time zones.

Former ISRO scientist Jahnu Baruah once observed that if we consider a minimum of six hour of productive input being put in per day in the IST areas, "the NE has then lost 26 years in term of productivity since Independence by following the Indian Standard Time. If the single time zone continues, then NE would be 54 years behind in 100 years".