Assam CM Sonowal
Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal in a meeting with the representatives of Srimanta Sankardeva Sangha at Janata Bhawan on Monday.

Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Monday said the state government will write to the Centre for recognising the birth anniversary of Srimanta Sankardeva as a national holiday.

Sonowal said this during a meeting at Janata Bhawan with the representatives of Srimanta Sankardeva Sangha.

During the meeting, the Assam government decided to officially celebrate the birth anniversary of Srimanta Sankardeva.

The meeting decided to officially hold a state-level function of Srimanta Sankardeva for the first time.

Sonowal also said the state government would urge the Centre for inserting the gurujona’s life and work as an exclusive chapter in NCERT curricula.

Sonowal also asked deputy commissioner of Nagaon to allot the additional 350 bighas of land to Srimanta Sankardeva University.

In the meeting, the representatives of Srimanta Sankardeva Sangha informed the chief minister that the Sangha on its own is running 56 schools and four colleges.

They also requested for government aid in carrying forward their academic activities.

Chief minister Sonowal asked the education department to set a modality for giving financial grants to Srimanta Sankardeva Sangha.

They also requested the CM to run the administration of Srimanta Sankardeva University with a partnership between government and Srimanta Sankardeva Sangha to which the CM assured to take positive steps.

The representatives of Srimanta Sankardeva Sangha told the CM that for their next session, the Sangha would invite Vice President of India and sought state government’s help.

They requested the CM to create a corpus fund for Srimanta Sankardeva Sangha, as Sonowal assured them to create one very shortly.

Chief minister Sonowal also informed the Srimanta Sankardeva Sangha office-bearers that his government has already taken a series of steps for the development of Batadrava , the birthplace of Srimanta Sankardeva.

Sonowal asked the PWD (R) to widen the road leading to Batadrava than.

Once the road widening is done transportation to university would become a seamless affair, Sonowal retorted.