Staff Correspondent
Port Blair, Oct 08: A seminar was organized today at ANCOL to get the feedback from the students and other stakeholders regarding the selection of permanent site of ANCOL at Chakkargaon.
Defying all logics against the demand of setting up of new college in the rural areas of South Andaman, all students, the actual stake-holders, today demanded for setting up the new college at Chakkargaon.
The said seminar was attended by Students, Lecturers and senior officials of Andaman and Nicobar Administration.
The seminar started with a presentation made by the Secretary Education who said that 3.6 hactares of land available for ANCOL at Chakkargaon is most suitable site for ANCOL and Land was handed over to APWD and APWD has submitted preliminary cum detailed estimate for fencing, gate, jungle clearance and contour mapping amounting Rs. 29,89,424 and Administration has not yet sanctioned the amount due to non-finalization of permanent site for ANCOL.
Mr. Francis Xavier, HoD English, JNRM said to have the college at Chakkargaon is the considered decision taken after weighing the pros and cons of higher education in the islands therefore we must honour it. However there should be institution of higher learning outside at Port Blair also.
He said that fresh intake of 360 Students of 2015-16 and existing 360 students can be accommodated only in the permanent campus.
During the seminar the PBMC Chairperson Mr. R Arumugam said that the college must be constructed outside the Port Blair area while Mr. Hamid Ali , senior congress leaders said that the he is representing, Mr. Kuldeep Rai Sharma, who thinks that the college should be set up in rural areas.
However, all government officials present during the seminar and all students demanded the permanent campus of ANCOL at Chakkargaon they also raised hand in support of the Chakkargaon area as permanent site.
HRD minister Smriti Irani had recently said that the Education policies should be made consulting the actual stakeholders of Education, the Students, their parents and Teachers and in this case when the students are demanding permanent site of new college at Chakkargaon then the Administration must honour it, without delaying more as more delay may cause problems in extension of provisional affiliation of ANCOL.
How far the opinion is trustworthy can be judged from the fact that the seminar was conducted on a day cyclone Hudhud hit the islands. The day was declared a holiday since public transport including ferry service was suspended/cancelled due to safety concerns. Consequently those hailing from rural locations, who could have opined a rural location for ANCOL got systematically excluded from the exercise.