New Delhi, July 28 (MExN): The Governor of Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland, PB Acharya congratulated Prof. M. Jagadesh Kumar, Vice Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi for taking initiative in setting up a hostel for North East students, which will be completed in a time-bound period of 18 months. The Governor visited the university on the invitation of the Vice Chancellor on July 26. He visited the proposed 400 capacity hostel site for North East students at JNU and planted a sapling, informed a press release from PRO to the Governor (Arunachal Pradesh). Stating that achievers must be givers, the Governor opined that those empowered by the university have to be reminded that it is their duty to strengthen their alma mater. He said important infrastructure projects of top universities and colleges in the western countries are financed by the ex-students. He called upon the former North East States students of JNU, who are doing well in life to contribute towards the North East hostel project. Meanwhile, the Governor advised the Vice Chancellor to promote the concept of alumni assistance to alma mater. He volunteered to reach out to alumni of JNU if asked for. On his part, the Governor assured an amount of Rs. 10 lakh, Rs. 5 lakh from Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland for ten awards in the names of inspiring personalities of North Eastern States, the release added. He proposed the names of Dr. T. Ao – Olympian, ‘Rani Ma’ Gaidinliu – freedom fighter, Daying Ering – one of the pioneers of political father figures of Arunachal Pradesh, Saint Narrottam – a Vaishanavi sage from Tirap (Arunachal Pradesh), Lachit Borphukan – Commander-in-Chief of the Ahom army (Assam), U Tirot Singh – one of the great chiefs of the Khasi people, Padma Sambhav – Buddhism Saint (Sikkim), Jana Neta Hijam Irabot – social activist (Manipur), Vanapa – Father of Mizos (Mizoram), and Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya Bahadur – the king of Tripura. An amount of Rs.10 lakh will be kept in the fixed deposit as corpus fund for the purpose and interest accrued each year will be used for the awards, which will be in kind along with a certificate, Governor Acharya’s Award. Two awards will be for students from North East States and rest of the eight awards for other students of JNU. The Governor, in an initiative to promote emotional and national integration of North East people, requested Prof. M Jagadesh Kumar to introduce a Chair or Department for teaching Certificate Course on North East Tribal Dialects at JNU. “Our universities should open a department or a chair for the ‘NAMASTE’ (Nagaland-Arunachal Pradesh-Manipur-Meghalaya-Mizoram-Assam-Sikkim-Tripura-East) North East regional dialects for emotional integration,” he underscored.
