SETS EDUCATION, EMPLOYMENT & ELECTRICITY AS PRIORITIES
Nagaland Governor P.B. Acharya Thursday appealed to Nagas to accept the appointment of R.N. Ravi as the new interlocutor for the ongoing Naga peace talks and to give him a chance. He also appealed the people of the state to work for an early solution to the protracted political issue as the right time has arrived.
Addressing media persons at Raj Bhavan Thursday, the governor said that the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre had concerns for the Northeast region and has the guts to solve issues confronting the region.
Acharya said the people were “tired” as there was no positive outcome during the last 17 years of the peace process and opined that the process has to be expedited. He was reacting to views of various civil society organizations over the appointment of chairman of Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) R.N. Ravi as the new interlocutor by the government of India on August 29.
Describing Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a dynamic person, he said that the present government had much concern for the people of the Northeast. He said if Nagaland could start in the right direction, the situation in the entire Northeastern region could improve.
On the state’s deficit which has crossed over Rs. 1252 crore for 2014-15, the governor said the accountant general should be bold enough to root out all corruptions. He pointed out that the nation was “eroded with corruption” and that it was the responsibility of every citizen to curb corruption and asked the media to highlight corruption so that the country could develop further. He also said people of Nagaland were poor due to corruption.
Acharya pointed out that Nagaland has rich deposit of petroleum and minerals, even gold, but due to non-tapping of the same, people were not able get the benefit. Acharya also spelt out his concern for 3Es – Education, Employment and Electricity as his priorities.
Expressing shock over the appointments of proxy teachers in government schools, Acharya opined that stern actions should be taken and stressed on the need to strengthen the education system to uplift the downtrodden.
He said hidden talents in the state could be utilized to uplift education system and appealed to women empowered with education to adopt one government school to serve as a guest lecturer to empower the school. Acharya also suggested that higher educational institutes in the state could adopt an exchange programme where lecturers from other parts of the country could be deputed to the state and those from the state sent to other parts of India. This he said could not only improve the situation of education but also promote national integration. Acharya also pointed out that India has seven crore tribal communities and that universities should promote tribal languages.
He lamented that the union government had a department for learning foreign languages but the government has not been able to introduce “dialects” as courses to be studied. He also cited the example of Mumbai University’s willingness to accept “five dialects” for a 6-month certificate or diploma course. He informed that resource persons for teaching Naga dialects would be those Nagas settled in the Metro cities. “This way, mindset about the ignorance of the mainland about North East would be changed”, he said.
Stressing on the importance of electricity for any country to march ahead, Acharya said that hydro potentiality, petrol and coal were all available in Nagaland. If properly channelized, these areas would automatically provide employment to the unemployed. He reiterated that the Centre had the will to solve the problem and urged for people’s participation in the development and peace process of Nagaland.
On the cultural front, Acharya said that North East Zone Cultural Centre had a big potential to play its role to promote rich Naga culture in foreign countries.
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