OUR CORRESPONDENT
ITANAGAR: The Arunachal Pradesh Technical Teachers’ Association (APTTA) has reiterated its demand for early separation of technical education from the Directorate of Higher and Technical Education (DHTE). In its general body meeting held on Tuesday, the association observed that when more than 95 per cent of states in the country have a separate directorate for technical education, why can Arunachal Pradesh not have a separate directorate? “Even small states like Sikkim, Mizoram, and Nagaland have separate directorates for technical education. Nagaland separated its technical education from DHTE when it had just three polytechnic colleges, whereas Arunachal has six government polytechnic colleges and two engineering colleges under construction, namely Toru and Tezu engineering colleges.
The association also demanded the revamping of the infrastructure of all polytechnic colleges in the state. As per the reports prepared by the association’s president, during his team’s tour of all the polytechnic colleges, the established infrastructures of these colleges are in dilapidated condition. The infrastructure conditions at Rajiv Gandhi Government Polytechnic College (RGGPC) and Government Polytechnic College Namsai are better, but they also need immediate attention before they go from bad to worse, the association pointed out. As per AICTE, there are many more infrastructures that need to be established in these six colleges, but no steps have been taken in this regard till date. The APTTA also demanded special attention to technical education.
“Arunachal Pradesh is a poor Indian state, and it is heavily dependent on funds allocated by the central government. The state is not self-reliant because of a lack of industrialization. The progress and economic development of any state depend on industrialization. But the sorry state of affairs is that the government of the day is giving no importance to technical education in the state,” the association said. Most of the diploma engineering colleges are running without manpower, especially non-teaching staff as well as ministerial staff. The state government has opened these technical institutes but left them to survive on their own. State engineering colleges are in the pipeline. Construction began way back in 2015, but they have yet to see the light of day, it added. The APTTA urged the state government to pay special attention to technical education for the overall development of the state, saying that in search of gold, the state government should not lose diamonds.
Also Watch: