Boost to NE education sector

GUWAHATI, JUL 13 (NPN):
Union minister of state for HRD, D. Purandeswari Tuesday said out of the reforms undertaken by the centre especially in the context of the northeast, 44 colleges are to be established in the region out of 374 new degree colleges that are to be established all over the country one each in such district, which has Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) below the national average.
Purandeswari also informed that approval of the Union cabinet has been obtained for the proposed 10 new NITS to be opened in the country during the 11 Five Year Plan of which 6 NITs are proposed to be opened in Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Sikkim.
Speaking at the all India editors' conference held at Guwahati the minister stated that for SSA, in 2010-11, a total outlay of Rs.1767.59 crore has been approved by the Project approval Board for the NE Region. She also highlighted the Mid-day Meal scheme of the government where cooked meals are being provided to all elementary school children (13 crore).
Purandeswari also informed that in order to take up large number of students coming out of elementary schools as a result of the SSA, the government has launched the Rashtriya Madhyamic Shiksha Abhiyan, through which lower secondary schools will be set up every three kilometers and higher secondary schools every five kilometers.
Highlighting the Right to Education Act (RTE), which gives every child in the age group of 6 – 14 years the right to free and compulsory education the minister appealed to the state governments through the media to implement the RTE effectively.
"Education sector of the country is ripe for education reforms, especially in the context of globalization, so that when our children grow up, they are with proper educational skills, able to shoulder the demands of the increasing GDP and able to avail of the burgeoning job sector" she said.
The minister pointed out that the country's higher education Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) of 12.4 per cent while being commendable considering the largeness and diversity of the country would need to be raised to 30% by 2020, in order to reap the demographic dividend of the country.
She also said that the National Literacy Mission has been recast as "Saakshar Bharat' in the context of government's overall policy aimed at empowerment of women and in recognition of the fact that literacy is a pre-requisite for socio-economic development.
(With PIB inputs)




PM orders constant supply of essentials to NE
AGARTALA, JUL 13 (IANS):
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has asked his top officials to ensure constant supply of food grains, fuels and other essentials to northeastern states, officials said here Tuesday.
"The prime minister has asked Cabinet Secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar to personally supervise the supply of food grains, transport fuels and cooking gas and other essentials to northeastern states," a top Tripura government official told IANS. The prime minister held a meeting with officials in New Delhi Monday evening and reviewed the situation of supply of essentials to northeast, the official said.
He also said that the prime minister asked the officials to take steps to build buffer stocks of essential items in northeastern states, especially Manipur and Tripura. Chandrasekhar held a meeting on the issue Saturday through video-conferencing. Union home secretary G.K. Pillai, Tripura chief secretary S.K. Panda, Assam's additional chief secretary N.K. Das and Food Corporation of India (FCI) CMD Syraj Hussain were among the officials with attended the meeting.
Panda told IANS: "After the Saturday's meeting the FCI and Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) have taken urgent steps to supply food grains, fuels and other essentials to northeastern states."
"Railway wagons and trucks loaded with these materials have already reached different locations of Tripura, Manipur and Assam," he said.
Manipur, Tripura, Mizoram, southern Assam and other parts of northeast had been facing shortage of essential items due to road blockades by different protesting organisations and disruption of railway services due to heavy rains in the past two and a half months.
The rail services were restored partially last week.