Northeast ties to get boost with action plan
Mangalore Today News Network
Mangaluru, Oct 28,2016: Speaking to presspersons on the sidelines of the univerity’s Academic Council meeting, V C, K. Byrappa said the action plan included exchange of students, including volunteers of the National Service Scheme, and faculty members; exchange of culture, and having collaborative research programmes.
As part of this initiative, a three-member team of Gauhati University, led by its Vice-Chancellor Mrudul Hazarika, visited Mangalore University on Wednesday and held talks with Vice-Chancellor K. Byrappa.
Taking the recent move of Nagaland Governor P.B. Acharya to foster ties between Mangaluru and the northeast forward, Mangalore University has chalked out an action plan, beginning the ties to grow first with Gauhati University.After Gauhati University, the activities planned would be extended to other education institutes in north-eastern States such as Tripura and Nagaland, the Vice-Chancellor said.
V C, K . Byrappa said a 10-member team of Mangalore University, comprising teachers from the university and its constituent colleges, would visit Guwahati next month. They would motivate students in rural areas of Assam to study in Mangaluru and its surroundings. The team would also identify the sectors which could be bridged.
Mangalore University would send three batches of NSS volunteers a year, with 15 volunteers in each batch, to work in north-eastern States.
The Vice-Chancellor said that Mangalore University would introduce certificate and diploma courses in at least a northeast language/dialect in the next academic year. There would also be exchange of cultural teams of students.
Governor Acharya, who also heads Northeast Zone Cultural Centre of the Union government, and educationists of Mangaluru last month sat across here to make a new beginning to win over the confidence of people of north-eastern States, which, according to Gov Acharya, have been hit by insurgency.
A meeting, chaired by him, decided to form a five-member committee, headed by Gov Acharya, to chalk out an action plan to make the initiative a reality. V C, K Byrappa was part of this meeting.
Gov Acharya suggested that the vice-chancellors of all universities in Mangaluru come together to take up “service-oriented projects” in the north-eastern States. He said universities together could host annual executive committee meetings of 800 ‘sahitya sabhas’ of the northeast in Mangaluru.
They could host sports meets of north-eastern universities here and could have student-faculty exchange programmes. Universities could start certificate/diploma programmes of some of the about 200 dialects spoken in those States. He said the universities could open departments of study chairs on tribal dialects of the northeast.