Excelsior Correspondent
SHILLONG, Jan 3: On his first visit to the State of Meghalaya after taking over Independent charge of Ministry of Development of North-Eastern Region (DoNER), Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh,who is also MoS PMO,DoPT,Space,Atomic Energy, was today formally felicitated at Raj Bhavan here by Governor of Meghalaya, Dr Krishan Kant Paul.
Welcoming Dr Jitendra Singh to the State of Meghalaya, the Governor said, people of the region had high expectations from the Narendra Modi Government and everybody looked forward to the new DoNER Minister with great optimism and hope that alienation suffered by people of the region, particularly the youth, will soon come to an end.
The Governor was very emphatic in his opinion that the security and social concerns of the region could be mitigated to a large extent if there is an effective plan for youth empowerment. He said, large number of youth were going astray because of lack of education opportunities and unemployment. This could be overcome by giving the youth adequate exposure to the world outside North Eastern region and making wider opportunities of vocation and livelihood accessible to them, he observed.
Responding to the Governor’s observations, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the welfare of North-Eastern youth is high on the agenda of the present Government which is evident from the fact that during his recent visit to the region, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced setting up of a Sports University and opening up of six new Agricultural Colleges here.
For mitigating the hardships faced by the North-Eastern students studying in different metro cities of the country, Dr Jitendra Singh disclosed that a proposal had been approved for construction of a girls’ hostel with 269 accommodation in the Bangalore University at the cost of Rs.13.85 cr. Similar hostels are also being considered for Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Delhi University South Campus, he added.
Dr Jitendra Singh referred to North-East Regional Multi-disciplinary Paramedical Institute set up at Dimapur, Nagaland at the cost of Rs.49.81 crore where the seats in different paramedical courses will be shared between the host State i.e. Nagaland and other seven States in the ratio of 40:60.
In addition, he said, possibilities are being explored in consultation with the Union Ministry of Human Resources Development (HRD) to attract high quality faculty to North-Eastern Region by providing monetary or non-monetary incentives.
Appreciating the Governor’s deep understanding of the intrinsic problems of the region, Dr Jitendra Singh said, he will look forward to further inputs from the Raj Bhawan in order to achieve the common objective of development of the region.
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