[dropcap]F[/dropcap]or those who have been to Allahabad or Delhi, they knew that offices and classes there seems to have started so early unlike here in Nagaland, though it is 9.00 AM, and they struggle to accustom themselves with this new culture of time utilization. This is because in these cities, the timing for offices and classes are set to begin 3 hours (approximately) after the sun rises whereas here in Nagaland we normally begins our offices and classes 4 hours after the sun has risen. Here in our state, by the time we set out to our daily work, the sun’s position will be almost vertically overhead us. In reality India should have two time zones due to its vast geographical extend which measures about 2,933 km from east to west covering nearly 29 degree longitude, and the real time difference between its eastern and western extremities is roughly of two hours. However, India has only one time zone called Indian Standard Time which is scaled at 82.5 degree E longitude passing through Allahabad. For example, today the sun rises at 5.44 AM in Allahabad whereas here in Kohima the sun rises at 4.54 AM, which is almost one hour ahead of Allahabad, however daily works schedule is 9.00 AM for both cities. This makes us to lose one hour daily when compared with Allahabad workers. This is the reason why Tarun Gogoi, CM of Assam has been campaigning for a separate time zone for northeast Indian states in order to save energy consumption and utilize the daylight more efficiently.
But do we really need another time zone to have better utilization of daylight? The day length for kohima is 12 hours 42 minutes (from sunrise to sunset) as on 13th April 2015. It will be the same even if we have changed our time zone to one hour ahead of IST. Thus the solution for better utilization of day light lies not on changing the time zone but on changing the timing of our daily activities. In other words, we need not necessarily wait 9.00 AM to start office but instead it should begin at 8.00AM. This will saves us one hour of daylight.
Besides this faulty timing work schedule, another serious problem we face daily is traffic congestion especially in the state capital. Normally it took 2 hours on average during rush hour for a distance of 3-4 km trip which can be covered in 15-20 minutes in normal cities. As a result, most employees usually begin their work at 2 hours later than the official timing. It is not surprising that most of the staff and workers in offices will not be available before 11.00AM due to undergoing this daily ritual of traffic congestion which normally last 2 hours.
Therefore, to optimize time utilization of daylight, we need to set our daily works timing a bit earlier than those of Delhi or Allahabad. This will also bring vehicular movement at better ease which is a harsh reality for everyone in the state capital thus saving energy and time.
Khrukroku Vero
Kohima.
