SHILLONG, Dec 29: As Meghalaya will reminisce about the remnants of the glorious past of U Kiang Nangbah, a freedom fighter from the state who led an uprising against the British, the deplorable condition of the college named after him in Jowai questions the attention given to it by the successive government.
“Having named such an important college after the legendary freedom fighter U Kiang Nongbah, it is very disappointing to see that the importance of the infrastructure of this college building was not given much importance by any government for that matter in the last 20-30 years,” Senior Congress Legislator Charles Pyngrope told The Shillong Times.
Pyngrope informed that in the last few weeks they had travelled to Jowai as a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and visited the Kiang Nongbah College, which has a beautiful campus and is close to the city centre but unfortunately the infrastructure is very poor.
Referring to his interaction with the teachers, committee members and the student bodies of the college, Pyngrope informed that when the stakeholders had earlier approached the government, they were told that there are no funds.
“Now, if you are going to give priority to a department like education and you can’t find funds to develop its infrastructure, then there is a gap which has to be filled,” he observed.
Informing that the Poly technique department and the hostel at the college were in a godawful condition, Pyngrope said, “Something has to be done because you are building the youths of the state, and if they do not get the better facilities then how will they study?”
Stressing that importance must be given to such institutes where they are training students to become pillars of the society, the MLA said, “The government should find ways and means. In the Assembly, we learned that they (government) had funds for education but the ground reality does not match with what they said”.
Hoping that Kiang Nongbah College gets funds for infrastructure, which is the need of the hour, the Congress MLA said, “I met the teachers and other faculty members and found that they were a very enthusiastic lot and doing their job under difficult circumstances which is admirable”.