Give children right direction: Sonowal

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Nov 14: Parenting is no easy task in this cyber age. Despite being averse to helicopter parenting, State Chief Minister Sarbada Sonowal has urged parents to monitor online activities of their children on the Internet, social media and various Apps they keep in touch with just to ascertain their line of thinking and to give them the right direction, if they get deviated.    

Taking part as the chief guest at the Children’s Day celebration organized by Asom Sishu Sahitya Nyas in association with Kamrup (Metro) district administration at Latasil playground on Tuesday, Sonowal called upon the people of the state to work with responsibility for holistic development of children.

 “We must put joint efforts with dedication and responsibility for physical, mental and intellectual development of children. Parents and teachers will have to shoulder greater responsibility for providing them better education and making them more interested towards sports and generating awareness about good health”, Sonowal said, adding that both parents and teachers have to guide children to lead a positive life for achieving success in future.

Stating that teacher’s responsibility does not end with providing classroom education only, the Chief Minister observed that they would have to work for strengthening their mental abilities as well. Further underlining the need for guiding children to lead a disciplined and ideal life, Sonowal urged the teachers to broaden the horizon of their thoughts.

Lauding former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s role in giving a secured and empowered life to the children, Sonowal asserted to take strict action against those involved in the social welfare scam in the state. He also urged the children to be cautious while using social and other new media and asked the parents to keep the children away from the negative use of social media.

While delivering the welcome speech on the occasion, Chief Minister’s Media Adviser Hrishikesh Goswami stated that the Sishu Sahitya Nyas has been effectively working for mental and intellectual development of the children and has taken up series of activities in this regard since last year. He also mentioned that the Nyas has so far published more than 250 books for children and is committed to work for giving a platform for honing their latent talent.

MLA Siddhartha Bhattacharya, Chief Minister’s Legal Adviser Santanu Bharali, Guwahati Mayor Mrigen Sarania, Vice Chancellor of KKHSOU Dr. Hitesh Deka, Commissioner & Secretary, Education Department Pritom Saikia, Police Commissioner Hiren th, Kamrup (Metro) DC Dr. M Angamuthu, eminent litterateur Arup Dutta were also present on the occasion.

Coinciding with the Children’s Day celebration, Sonowal also released ten books published by Asom Sishu Sahitya Nyas. He also iugurated the art competition, which was organized as part of the celebration.