Govt’s vision is to provide quality edn: CM

LAYS FOUNDATION STONE FOR MUSIC & FINE ARTS COLLEGE

Correspondent KOHIMA, SEP 7 (NPN) : Nagaland chief minister Neiphiu Rio Monday said that his government’s primary focus and vision was to provide quality education to the youths of the state.

Rio said this while addressing the foundation stone laying ceremony for the Professional College of Music and Fine Arts (PCoMuFA) at Tsiesema here Monday. The college will be under the Nagaland University.

Besides the State lagging behind in many aspects, particularly in education sector, Rio said maximum expenditure was incurred in sending children to good schools and colleges outside the State that drains the local economy. Hence, setting up world class centres of excellence, model colleges and other institutions would benefit the children, he added.

Congratulating the Higher & Technical Education (H&TE) department for bringing in many projects in the State, including the PCoMuFA under Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA), Rio said the department had implemented 32 projects under RUSA 1.0 and 2.0 at all the colleges of the State that qualified under RUSA.

Emphasising studying of music, fine arts, dances, dramas, culture, etc, minutely, Rio remarked that having a professional college, particularly in the land of festival, would enhance the knowledge of music and fine arts and also attract outsiders to learn Naga culture.

He acknowledged the land owners for parting with their land for the college, even as he appealed for public support in the project, reminding the villagers that they would be more benefitted.

He also called for ensuring quality construction of the college and insisted the building design should have local motif as this would serve as a symbol to people who visited the college. Insisting on timely completion of construction, the chief minister observed that hardly any project gets completed on time in Nagaland, leading to price escalation.

H&TE and Tribal Affairs minister Temjen Imna Along, who too was present on the occasion, asserted that it was a momentous occasion for both the people of the State and the department, even as he expressed gratitude to the chief minister for ensuring that the foundation stone was laid on time.

He thanked the villagers for allowing the department to establish the college and hoped that thousands of Nagas would emerge as stars in future through the college.

Mentioning that PCoMuFA was the last project under RUSA 2.0, Along claimed that Nagaland would be counted as one of the few States in the Northeast that has been successfully implementing RUSA 2.0.

As RUSA 2.0 would end in the last part of September or first week of October, he said the Central government had invited him and therefore hoped that many more model colleges like at Tseminyu, Noklak and Mangkolemba and professional colleges at Kohima, Dimapur, Wokha, etc, could be set up in the years to come.

Chairman T Basa K Mere also spoke at the programme, which was also attended by ministers, advisors, AHoDS, HODs, villagers and others.

PCoMuFA to cost Rs 26 cr, scheduled to be completed by 2023: Higher and Technical Education (H&TE) commissioner & secretary Imjung M Panger said the Professional College of Music and Fine Arts (PCoMuFA) at Tsiesema here would be constructed at a cost of Rs 26 crore for which 9.5 acres of land was acquired.

In his introductory remark on the occasion of laying the foundation stone of the college on Monday, Panger said the funding of the college would be in the ratio of 90:10 where 90% cost would be borne by the Centre and remaining 10% by the State government, adding the Centre had already sanctioned Rs 11.7 crore in this regard.

He said the State Government has envisioned setting up a centre of excellence in the field of music and fine arts of national and international standards, besides providing a platform for furtherance of indigenous culture and for which it has already acquired 9.5 acres of land for the purpose.

Scheduled to be completed by 2023 and affiliated to Nagaland University, the college will offer quality and comprehensive programmes with high standards of excellence in music education and fine arts, skills and entrepreneurship development in music, performance and visual arts, incubation and nurturing of creativity, research tor furtherance of the arts and indigenous culture, technology application for utmost proficiency in music and art forms, and advocacy services.

Meanwhile, the commissioner & secretary claimed that the H&TE department had successfully implemented 32 various projects during the first phase of Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) between 2014 and 2018.

In the second phase of RUSA that started from May 2018, he said the department was implementing 10 new projects, including the upcoming PCoMuFA.

He mentioned that other ongoing projects are setting up of a new model degree college at Tzujiaksa, Mangkolemba in Mokokchung district, engineering college at Tzurangsa in Mokokchung, construction of hostels for ST girl students for Kohima Science College (Autonomous), Jotsoma, infrastructure upgrade of college library building at Dimapur Government College, academic building at Mount Tiyi College, Wokha, girls’ hostel for Kohima College, classrooms for Phek Government College and Fazl All College at Mokokchung, besides quality and excellence project for Kohima Science College, Jotsoma. Unfortunately, he added that the remaining 10 non-accredited government colleges were not eligible for RUSA 2.0.

Source: http://www.nagalandpost.com/govt-s-vision-is-to-provide-quality-edn-cm/221555.html