State’s first fishery academy inaugurated in city college

By Our Reporter

SHILLONG: In line with the Aquaculture Mission of the State Government, St Anthony’s College added another feather to its cap with the inauguration of the first academic infrastructure in the fishery sector in the state – the Fr Joseph Arokiasamy Block – here on Monday by Chief Secretary WMS Pariat.

This academic infrastructure, named after the College’s former principal, Fr Joseph Arokiasamy, was constructed under the Public-Private-Participation (PPP) mode with partial funding from the State Government under the Special Central Assistance.

The foundation stone of this building was laid on December 8, 2012.

Delivering the inaugural address, Pariat admitted that all these years, the State Fisheries department has always kept a low profile and not much was undertaken in this line, however, at present, this department has emerged to be the most leading department in as far as developmental activities are concerned.

“It is a known fact that Meghalaya is blessed with abundant natural resources and talented man-power, but unfortunately, we have not been able to convert the available talents into something worthwhile,” Pariat observed. The Chief Secretary also impressed on the need to ensure that the youth are given enough opportunities to apply their skills and talents in various fields to secure their livelihood and at the same time to achieve the target of inclusive growth.

Principal Secretary In charge of Fisheries department, KN Kumar, stressed on the need to have more academic infrastructure in the fishery sector considering that Meghalaya with its vast inland fishery resources offers tremendous scope for development of this sector.

“These kinds of partnership with the educational institutions are important as it eases the burden of the State Government in spending money on a new project which might take a lot of money and time,” Kumar said.

Principal Secretary In charge, Planning, RM Mishra said that if the importance of this mission is realized by the people especially the stakeholders, it will transform the livelihood of the people of the State.

Later, the Chief Secretary also released a video and an animation film on Aquaculture Mission and also felicitated the media team of the Meghalaya Basin Development Agency.

The function was attended by the Principal of the College, Br Albert L Dkhar, Fr. D John Jayakumar, government officials, teachers and students, besides others.