CORRESPONDENT
SHILLONG: In light of the ongoing unrest surrounding the North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU), Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma on Tuesday expressed serious concern over the situation and reiterated his government’s efforts to engage with the Centre to find a resolution. Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said he is “engaging with the Government of India. I speak to the Honourable Education Minister on a time-to-time basis and update him and request. You can find a way to resolve it so they’re doing the best.”
“We are – we are concerned about the issue in NEHU, and mostly I am concerned about the students,” he stated. “There are issues from both sides. We’ve tried to understand those issues, tried to reach out to the different stakeholders, either me directly or through somebody in the system — that means the government — and tried to see how we could resolve the issues so that NEHU can function in a smooth manner.”
Sangma said, “As I mentioned again earlier, NEHU is an autonomous [institution], directly functioning under the Education Ministry, Government of India, and appointments of the Chancellor are done from the President’s level. So, therefore, all these complications are there where, for state government, it is difficult for us to openly intervene in the day-to-day functioning because there are already systems that are in place.”
He added, “Even though we may want to do it in certain ways, state government is not actually the competent authority to officially intervene in these matters. So we can do it at a certain level.”
The Chief Minister also noted that his engagement has extended beyond students to other informal discussions. “I engage with the students, and I’m engaging unofficially and informally with certain staff and faculty. Other political leaders, as well as bureaucratic officials, are also engaging. So, we are finding a way; we’re trying to see how we could bring the different stakeholders together to resolve this issue. But as I said, we’re not very sure how things are moving forward.”
Also Read: Over 10 coal mines likely to get scientific mining clearance within 2 months: CM Sangma
Also Watch: