What a feeling it is to realise that a promise that one had made is well on its course to be fulfilled. The childlike emotions are difficult to describe but can certainly be felt over and over again. The promise of generating one lakh jobs that we had made in our election manifesto, over a year back, is well on its course to be achieved. We took a giant stride towards that on May 14 when my Government handed over nearly 23,000 appointment letters to our youths. We delivered transparency to them with a hope that they will reciprocate with sincerity in discharging their duties towards the people of the State. But, we are not stopping at that. In the coming months, we will be ready with over 34,000 more appointments. I reiterate my promise: These appointments will be characterised by honesty and transparency, come what may.
Besides this, our idea is also to create institutions which will harness our youth’s unlimited potential and train them to be self motivated. That was the thinking which went into our signing a comprehensive memorandum of agreement with Tata Technologies Limited to upgrade our ITIs and polytechnics with significant investment in material and manpower. This will set in motion a process which will change the face of technical and vocational education in Assam. Not only do we hope to generate employment for our youths skilled in these ITIs and polytechnics but we also want to ensure that they find meaning in their work. It is the same hope that we are nurturing from Gunotsav, our unique initiative to assess the standard of education in our schools meaningfully through a broad based system of evaluation.
I know that Gunotsav is a work in progress but I have no doubt we have sown seeds which have the potential to blossom into fruit-bearing trees. When I take stock of the entire exercise after June 4, I am sure that by then we would have been able to touch the lives of over 42 lakh students spread across 46,000-plus schools in Assam. An exercise we began in 2017 has gained traction, thanks to the dedication of all strata of the government machinery, schools, students and the civil society. This year, we have faced challenges from nature to conduct it as smoothly as we would have liked but that will not take away anything from what has been achieved at the ground. Let us not forget that the last two years pegged us back in our effort by a long way. The effort this year must be looked into with this prism.
Yes, the findings may not be all rosy, but this is precisely why we wanted to have Gunotsav: To identify loopholes and take corrective measures. The mark of a good government is to spot deficiencies and work towards addressing them. Any good government is always a work in progress, just like a student, who continues to learn from mistakes and build on that to add new knowledge to her repertoire.
My Government has been trying to undo historical wrongdoings meted out to to the tea garden community. The latest measure towards this end is the opening of 96 model schools to give children from the community a shot at quality education so that they can think for themselves a better future.
Come summer, Assam’s struggle with nature comes to the fore. In the month of May, too, floods wreaked havoc in many places and unprecedented rainfall triggered landslides leading to loss of lives and property beyond imagination. The scenario in Dima Hasao, especially, seeks our immediate attention. My Government is committed to help the people of the district. Respective district administrations are still working 24X7 to alleviate the pain and misery of the people. My Cabinet colleagues are using all means to reach out, irrespective of the ground realities. Even the Central Government has been very sympathetic by assuring us that there will no scarcity of funds. The Union Home Minister had called me up personally to assure all help. Like-minded individuals and business houses are wholeheartedly donating to the cause. How can anyone be at ease when our fellow human beings are struggling to lift themselves up?
A development that has saddened me to no end is the burning down of a police station in Batadraba, a place whose roots are in history. Collective rage is not a healthy sign in a democracy. I am at pains to warn anti-socials that my Government will not take it lying down. I have no qualms about reiterating that we will not tolerate any nonsense, whatsoever, that has the potential to disrupt peace in our society.
