Nagaland to get nod for upgrade of polytechnic institutes within this year

Dimapur, Aug. 26 (EMN): The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has assured to give its approval for the upgrade of two polytechnic institutes in Nagaland by the end of this year.

A press release from the public relations officer of Nagaland House, New Delhi informed that the chairman of AICTE Dr. Anil D Sahasrabudhe gave this assurance to Minister for Higher and Technical Education, and Tribal Affairs, Temjen Imna Along when they met in New Delhi on Monday.

It informed that Along had raised issues concerning the upgrade of Khelhoshe Polytechnic, Atoizu and Government Polytechnic, Kohima; and schemes available with the AICTE for Nagaland.

In return for the upgrade of the two institutes, the chairman requested the government of Nagaland to give its commitment to upgrade infrastructure and create posts at the earliest.

“The AICTE is ready to provide funds for procurement of equipment for these institutes and all assistance necessary for preparation of DPRs. He also stated that the state government should avail schemes for groundwater harvesting, internet WAN/LAN/Fibre Optics installations, and solar power plants from the AICTE for the technical institutes of the state,” it stated.

Tribal Affairs

Along also called on Union Minister for Tribal Affairs Arjun Munda at the latter’s office in New Delhi on Monday.

He informed Munda that the state’s department of Tribal Affairs, which has been a long-felt need, was created only recently in Nagaland after approval by the cabinet on August 2.

The delegation told the union minister that since the department was created only a month ago, there were still lots of works to be undertaken. Munda, according to the press release, assured that the ministry will provide all assistance to the state, including a review of the current year’s projects/schemes along with consideration of additional project proposals for 2019-20.

“On the issue of various projects such as Minor Forest Produce (MFP), Minimum Support Price and development of value chain for MFP, which fall under the Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation—an initiative of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs—the union minister expressed happiness over the performance of DUDA and also assured that the proposals sent by the department will be taken up by the ministry,” it stated.

The ministry has declared DUDA as one of the State Implementing Agencies for these projects from 2018-19, it added.