Dimapur, July 28 (EMN): State Governor, PB Acharya, has lauded Prof. M. Jagadesh Kumar, Vice Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, for taking initiative in setting up the hostel for the North East students, which will be completed in a time-bound period of 18 months, adding it is for the first time that any University has taken care to address the challenges of students from the region.
Governor visited JNU on the invitation of JNU Vice Chancellor on July 26. The Governor visited the proposed 400 capacity hostel site for North east students in JNU and planted a sapling on the occasion.
Stating that achievers must be givers, the Governor opined that those empowered by the university have to be reminded that it is their duty to strengthen their Alma mater. He said that important infrastructure projects of top universities and colleges in the western countries are financed by the ex-students.
He called upon the former North Eastern States students of JNU, who are doing well in life, to contribute towards the North East hostel project.
The Governor advised the Vice Chancellor to promote the concept of Alumni assistance to alma mater. He volunteered to reach out to Alumni of JNU if asked for.
On his part, the Governor assured an amount of Rs 10 lakh consisting Rs 5 lakh each from Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland for Ten Awards in the names of inspiring personalities of North Eastern States. He proposed the names of Dr. T Ao- Olympian and Rani Ma Gaidinliu – freedom fighter (Nagaland), Daying Ering- one of the pioneers of political father figures of Arunachal Pradesh and Saint Narrottam- a Vaishanavi sage from Tirap (Arunachal Pradesh), Lachit Borphukan - Commander-in-Chief of the Ahom army (Assam), U Tirot Singh - one of the great chiefs of the Khasi people (Meghalaya), Padma Sambhav – Buddhism Saint (Sikkim), Jana Neta Hijam Irabot- social activist (Manipur), Vanapa - Father of Mizos (Mizoram), and Vir Vikram Kishore Manikya Bahadur- the great king of Tripura (Tripura).
An amount of Rs 10 lakh will be kept in the fixed deposit as corpus fund for the purpose and the interest accrued each year will be used for the awards, which will attributed as Governor Acharya’s Award.
The Governor, in an initiative to promote emotional and national integration of North East people, requested Prof. M Jagadesh Kumar to introduce a chair or department for teaching certificate course on North East Tribal Dialects in JNU. He informed that Mumbai University, SNDT University, NITTE and Manipal University have already started such courses in their curriculum on the his initiative.
The Governor said that learning even a few working knowledge of local dialects will bring the hearts together as equal.
