SHILLONG: The CSWO has once again slammed the Government for ‘draining the State’s resources’ by sending students to a little known institute in Kolkata where the wards were exploited and misled.
The CSWO especially targeted the Directorate of Employment & Craftsmen Training, Labour Department which had signed a MoU with Minerva Educational and Welfare Society which also goes by the name Minerva Institute of Medical Technology MoU on November 5, 2015.
Reacting to the “blatant anomaly” CSWO president Agnes Kharshiing said, “It is ambiguous as to which institute the government signed the MoU with. The concerned state government departments, the Education and Labour departments are maintaining stoic silence on the matter.”
“The students should not have been sent outside in the first place; the government could have set up a centre or an institute here or strengthen the Industrial Training Institute (ITI), Rynjah. Skill training can also be provided in Meghalaya,” she said while addressing reproters here on Tuesday.
Clarifying on why only a small section of the students from the State chose to protest, an aggrieved student argued that since many students were from remote villages of the State they preferred to remain quiet out of fear that they would have to pay the fees in order to leave the institute.
She claimed that even an official of the Directorate advised the remaining students to pay the fees even as the Director refused to address the grievances of the students. Some photos available with Kharshiing showed the decrepit condition of the lab meant for the students. Free facilities and transportation, food and lodging, 100 per cent job placement, separate hostels for girls and boys, 24×7 medical facility were also promised by the institute.
However, the students dismissed several of the claims including the one on separate hostels for girls and boys.
Kharshiing has called upon the government to take immediate action and to address the problems faced by the students.
