Demand for CAU in Meghalaya placed before Union Minister P Rupala

A Correspondent

SHILLONG: , during his visit to ICAR, Umiam on Wednesday. Rupala was in Umiam as the chef guest in a workshop on “Soil Health Card Day and Mission Organic Value Chain Development” organized by ICAR-ATARI, Umiam in collaboration with ICAR RC for NEH Region.

The Confederation of Ri-Bhoi People (CORP) submitted a memorandum to the Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare to set up a CAU in Meghalaya and also increase representation of Scheduled Tribes (STs) in recruitment at the Central Agriculture University.

It may be mentioned that the college at Kyrdemkulai and Post Graduate College at Barapani is functioning under the CAU, Imphal.

The CORP pointed out that the university has 13 campuses across the eight northeastern States which includes the College of Home Science, Tura and the College of Post-Graduate Studies, Umiam.

The organization in the memorandum to Rupala also pointed out that according to the ‘Rani Lakshmi Bai Central Agricultural University Bill, 2012’ which was presented to the Lok Sabha and laid on the table of Rajya Sabha on March 14, 2013, a Central Agricultural University in Meghalaya was approved for the development of the agricultural sector of the region and to render benefits to the local community.

“However, instead of the proposed Central Agricultural University in Meghalaya, a sub-campus – College of Agriculture, Kyrdemkulai, Meghalaya under the Central Agricultural University, Imphal has been established since 2014,” the CORP said.

According to the organization, if such an institute exists in Meghalaya, the State as a whole will benefit immensely from its presence.

The memorandum to the Union Minister also states that there will be a greater number of students who will be able to opt for agriculture and allied studies thereby building the State’s future.

“A home ground institute would also be able to provide education to some of the weaker sections of society who comes from an agricultural background and are economically not well off as the cost of providing education will significantly be much cheaper,” the memorandum states.

Meanwhile, the CORP also brought to the notice of the Union Minister regarding the recent recruitment announcement of Central Agriculture University based in Imphal, Manipur, having its sub campuses located in Meghalaya by the name of College of Post Graduate Studies, Umiam; College of Agriculture, Kyrdemkulai and College of Home Sciences, Tura.

The CORP stated that in this recruitment, there has been a bare minimum vacancy allotted to STs, who are the predominant population of Meghalaya.

“From the total of 155 vacancies announced, only 8 seats (5%) are allotted to ST candidates out of which only 3 seats are given to Assistant Professor posts, which is the entry-level post for a career in academia,” the CORP pointed out in the memorandum to Rupala.

The CORP stated that the system as to how the vacancies are distributed and which institute will be filled, with how many seats, is very much unclear and leaves open the possibility that Meghalaya might not get any local qualified candidates.

In the memorandum to the Union Home Minister, the CORP pointed out that with such figures, the ST candidates of the State have a grim hope of being able to be considered for these posts as even though 63 seats are categorised as unreserved, it has been noticed in previous selections, that such posts are filled by candidates from general category only, even when the ST candidates have the same academic standings as the general counterparts.

“The main aim of an ST reservation is to provide an equal representation for weaker sections of society so that we can be at par with the rest of the country. However, this has been used against us and we are being marginalised and deprived of the right to get good opportunities in one of the country’s respected profession,” the memorandum to the Union Minister states.

The CORP pointed out that in the College of Post-Graduate Studies, Umiam, a maximum number of employees have been transferred from Imphal headquarters into various levels, thereby leaving the institute with negligible number of local manpower in the colleges.

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