Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Pema Khandu on Saturday inaugurated and dedicated to the people a sports stadium at Don Bosco College, Jullang near Itanagar, named in memory of his late father and former chief minister Dorjee Khandu.
Lauding the Don Bosco authorities for closely monitoring the successful completion of the stadium, Khandu said it was an example to be followed suit across the state.
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Incidentally, Khandu in his last visit to the college in 2017 had felt the need for a stadium in the college premises for overall growth of the students and hence had announced a sanction of Rs 3 crore for the construction of one.
“I regret that due to unforeseeable circumstances the full sanctioned amount could not be released. Despite the fact, the engineering wing of the education department under the close supervision of college authorities completed the project on time,” he informed.
Khandu made a call to all agencies to emulate the example of not only completing a project despite fund-cut but completing it on time without compromising with the quality.
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Of the 3 crore sanctioned, only 2 crore was released for the project. Khandu assured that the remaining sanctioned amount will be released this financial year.
The chief minister welcomed the gesture of the college authorities to allow use of the stadium by the state government and other organizations for conduct of various state and national level events.
“This is a welcome gesture. This stadium will now not only be an asset of the college but of the entire state,” he observed.
He advised Education Minister Taba Tedir, also present on the occasion, who also is an engineer by profession, to study the feasibility of further expansion of the stadium so that it can host state, regional and national level events in the future.
“Given a detailed project report, I assure that funds will be placed for further expansion of the stadium,” he declared.
Informing of the just-passed state budget of 2021-22, Khandu said this year has been declared as Year of Education. He said the government’s top priority this year will be overhauling the education sector.
“We have kept budget provisions of about Rs 1000 crore for education. We will develop and create infrastructure wherever needed, especially in rural and interior places,” he said.
Khandu said that the welfare of teachers will be paid attention to and to begin with teachers’ quarters will be constructed for all government schools wherever required.
“We are also concentrating on providing in-service training to all government teachers. For this we have allocated Rs 15 crore only for training and exposure trips to teachers,” he informed.
Asserting that the ‘convergence’ model is the new game plan of the state government, he said this implies ‘1 + 1 = 11’ instead of ‘1 + 1 = 2’!
Addressing the students, Khandu urged them to learn and adapt their indigenous culture for cultural preservation. He reiterated his appeal to learn and speak mother languages as much as possible.
“Cultural erosion begins when we lose our mother languages,” he pointed.
While expressing gratitude to the college, established in 2002, for producing many doctors, engineers, civil servants, scholars, entrepreneurs, etc, who are giving back to the society, Khandu appealed to the students to come back to the state after completing their professional and university courses and serve people of the state.
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister acknowledged the contribution of organizations like Don Bosco, R K Mission, Vivekananda Kendra and others in the field of education. He assured the state government will continue to provide grant-in-aid to all these organizations.