Staff Reporter

A. G. Momin, retired additional director of Public Instruction, graced the occasion as the chief guest while C. W. Momin, Additional Director of School Education and Literacy, East, West and South Garo Hills, chaired the function.

Delivering the welcome address, Sanjay Goyal, chairman, SSA and also the Deputy Commissioner of West Garo Hills, while stating that education and literacy plays an important role in life, informed that the SSA was an effort to universalize elementary education by community-ownership of the school system, in response to the demand for quality basic education all over the country.

The SSA programme is also an attempt to provide an opportunity for improving human capabilities to all children, through provision of community-owned quality education in a mission mode, he added.

Goyal also discussed the Saakshar Bharat Mission which aims to promote and strengthen adult education, specially for women, by extending educational options to those adults who having lost the opportunity of access to formal education and having crossed the standard age for receiving education, now feel a need for learning of any type including literacy, basic education (equivalency to formal education), vocational education (skill development), physical and emotional development, practical arts, applied science, sports, and recreation.

A. G. Momin while addressing the gathering stressed on the need to be more pro-active in terms of education and literacy.

"I would like all of us to look forward to the future for our nation’s sake and not look backward at our past," he said.

He also lamented that the Indian Government was investing only eight percent of its GDP on the education system of the nation. He, however, urged teachers gathered at the function not be disheartened.

Our Bureau

The camp was conducted under the aegis of Lt Col Vinod Bhaskar, Commanding Officer 2 Meghalaya Bn NCC Shillong and Maj Yogesh Jha, Adm Officer. It commenced on August 31 and saw a total of 300 cadets participating from nearly 16 colleges and 10 schools of Meghalaya.

The Press Information Bureau (Defence Wing) has said that the hallmark of the camp activities was the involvement of the cadets in ‘eco activities’.

Aizawl, Sept. 08 (PTI):

Elvis Chorkhy, president of the MBDPF also secretary of the Bru Coordination Committee (BCC), has been in Aizawl for two weeks along with the BCC chairman Surjomoni Reang, former president of the erstwhile underground Bru National Liberation Front (BNLF) holding discussions on the proposed repatriation of Bru refugees now lodged in six relief camps in North Tripura distrct.

Agartala, Sept. 08 (IANS):

Senior officials of Northeast Frontier Railways (NFR), Bangladesh Railways and the Tripura government held a series of meetings here this week and visited several places proposed to be utilised for laying the railway tracks.

"The final technical and alignment reports would now be submitted to both the governments for taking final decision before starting the actual works," Y. Ali Mirdha, Bangladesh Railway’s chief engineer, told reporters.

Staff Reporter

Alongside the festival, the artworks done during the 7th National Art Festival at Shillong are being exhibited. The exhibition was inaugurated on Wednesady by the Mizoram Art and Culture Minister, PC Zoram Thanga, who assured all possible assistance to the Akademi to promote contemporary art in the state.