Minister gets doctorate

Meghalaya urban affairs minister Ampareen Lyngdog receives her doctorate from President Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday. She also becomes the first minister to get her Ph.D while still holding cabinet position. TM pix

SHILLONG, OCT 22: Forty-eight years old Meghalaya’s urban affairs minister M Ampareen Lyngdoh became the only minister from the state to be conferred with the “doctorate degree” by President Pranab Mukherjee even as she is holding the cabinet post.

Lyngdoh is among the 2000 plus North Eastern Hills University (NEHU) students who attended to NEHU convocation ceremony that was conducted in the presence of the first citizen of the country. She is among the eighty-six students to be conferred ‘doctorate degree’ on Tuesday.

A brimming Lyngdoh told this website that she has now fulfilled the wishes of her parents who wanted to see one of their children doing doctorate. She said, “I am so happy and I felt so good when the President congratulated me on such a big occasion of my life.”.

Lyngdoh has been conferred doctorate degree by NEHU for her thesis -“Influence of Media on Public Opinion during the periods of Social Unrest: A Study of Meghalaya”. She did her research under the supervision of Dr Moses M Naga and Dr P Hangsing.

Lyngdoh registered for her Ph.D with the Library and Information Science in 2007, just a year before she joined politics. She said, “Since there was no mass communication department in NEHU, I had to register with the closes department that is the Library and Information Science.”

Lyngdoh said she had accomplished the dream and fulfilled the promise that she had made to her late father PG Marbaniang and mother. She informed that she would be publishing her thesis by next year.

Despite being a minister, Lyngdoh did not give up on her academic and strive to complete her doctorate with perseverance. She said every evening after coming from the secretariat or some other work her ministerial post demanded, she would sit with her supervisors and statisticians at NEHU. She informed, “I would start from 5. 36 pm every day after my office and then would personally work on my thesis till two o’clock in the morning.”

Lyngdoh did admit that it was a big challenge for her to complete her doctorate and said she is glad she did it. -By Our Reporter