Shillong, March 17: The state Cabinet on Friday approved the setting up of a State University to address the challenges faced by the students relating to the Common University Entrance Test (CUET).
Informing this after the meeting, cabinet minister and spokesperson of the MDA government Paul Lyngdoh said the Captain Williamson Sangma Technical University (Amendment) Bill will be placed on the table of the House to make it a Captain Williamson Sangma State University.
The Capt. Williamson Sangma Technical University Amendment Bill which proposes to change the University to Meghalaya’s 1st State University i.e the Capt. Williamson Sangma State University will be placed on the table of the Assembly.@dpradhanbjp pic.twitter.com/TY3ZpiKmAy
— Conrad K Sangma (@SangmaConrad) March 17, 2023
“(This was after) the cabinet today took up the matter of establishing its first state run university which means that fundamentally we decided to bring this to the cabinet in order that the Captain Williamson Sangma Technical University now will become the Captain Williamson Sangma State University,” he said.
“And since this is the first state university, we will offer courses in higher education, in the field of humanities, commerce, general science, engineering, physical sciences, life sciences, technologies and related matters,” he added.
Stating that the proposal has been okayed by the law department, the finance department and the personnel department, Lyngdoh said, “Our efforts now will be to try and strengthen the various departments so that this university becomes a success story.”
The Captain Williamson Sangma Technical University was set up at Tura, West Garo Hills District in 2011.
Whether it is a bane if students are not ready to compete in the CUET, Lyngdoh however said, “Well there are always more than two ways of looking at things. That is your perspective, that is your opinion. The opinion of the majority is that in order to not be bound by a certain regulation, let’s have a state university. So that’s democracy. You don’t see thing your way only.”
Asked as to when the state university will be set up, the spokesperson said, “We have already passed and adopted a cabinet memo to change the technical university into a state university. What comes next is the infrastructure, the support, the technical staff, the faculty. These will fall in place once the Act is adopted.”
He however admitted that the space available will not suffice for setting up of the state university and said, “We have to go on an expansion mode and with today’s technology everything is possible.”
Lyngdoh also informed that once the state university is made functional, affiliation of colleges will also happen.
At present, almost all the colleges across the state are affiliated with the North Eastern Hill University (NEHU).
To a query as to why the government is not setting up the state university in the state’s capital, the cabinet minister said, “The only hitch here is that you already have a technical university at Tura so tranfering it to Shillong will again take so much time. So in order to immediately have a state university you convert this technical university into a state university so that you do away with all the challenges that you have just mentioned CUET and all.”
Meanwhile, Commissioner & Secretary in-charge Education BDR Tiwari informed that the timeline for students to enroll for the CUET has been extended to March 30 instead of March 12.
“At present that is the status,” he said when responding to a query on the status of the government’s request for exemption of Meghalaya from the conduct of the CUET.
In addition, the cabinet minister requested to allow the new government to tackle the issue.
“Moreover a new government has just taken over so let the new government tackle so let the new education minister tackle. You are talking of something which happened in the previous tenure. Now a new Assembly has been elected, a new cabinet has taken over,” he said adding “The CM has mentioned the moment he took over which is not even a week now. So let the new government pursue the matter.”
