Base laid for promoting entrepreneurship

The function for unveiling the foundation stone was organized by the Department of Commerce & Industries in the premises of St. Joseph’s Secondary School, Chidimit which was also attended by Parliamentary Secretaries Cherak W. Momin, Brigady Marak and Marthon J. Sangma, East Garo Hills Deputy Commissioner H.B.Marak, Nokmas and local leaders, officials from MIDC and DCIC, other district officials, Principal, teachers and students of the school and a large number of people from the area.

The main objective of this scheme is to provide farmers and rural entrepreneurs with necessary industrial and social infrastructure to attract entrepreneurs for starting up various small scale industries. The centre will include facilities like industrial shed, common facility centre, labour shed, crèche for women entrepreneurs, chowkidar’s quarter and toilets for workers among others with a total project cost of Rs.305.79 lakh.

In his address the Chief Minister said that the Rural Entrepreneurship Centre will be the first of its kind in the whole country, adding that the scheme was conceived to “empower our people and make them capable of becoming big entrepreneurs at par with other businessmen of the country. He also justified selection of Nangapa for setting up of this centre saying that the farmers of the area has been hard working and has done considerably better than others while taking up schemes provided by Agriculture and Horticulture departments. He also informed the gathering about the Incubation centres that would be set up across the state which would provide handholding support to new entrepreneurs, adding that the potential entrepreneurs can identify what business they want to take up leveraging on the resources available around them and they will be trained accordingly and given all necessary support so they do have to depend on middlemen for marketing their products.

The Chief Minister also lamented the fact that the State had moved very slow in terms of development in the past years and called upon the departments and officials concerned to expedite all development projects. Indicating that the pace of development has picked up in the recent times, he highlighted a number of projects that are progressing fast including the construction of PMGSY roads and informed that the government has already approved 181 roads across the State to be funded by World Bank.

The Chief Minister was also overjoyed to learn that the host school has done exceptionally well in the SSLC exams with cent percent pass percentage, all securing 1^st division. “The story of St. Joseph’s School can be scripted as a success story in the midst of adversity”, he said and placed on record his deep sense of gratitude to the school for providing quality education in one of the most backward areas of the state. According its Principal, Fr. Salnesh K. Marak, the school till date had not received any grant from the government and therefore could not provide free education to the poor students of the area. He also submitted a memorandum on the occasion to the Chief Minister and Education Minister Deborah Marak seeking government intervention to the requirements of the school. In response, the Chief Minister assured that the government would provide up to Rs. 1 crore for construction of hostel from Rural Hostels for students scheme. He also asked the PWD (Building) to prepare an estimate for construction of additional class rooms for the school to enable it to start the higher secondary section.

Education Minister Deborah Marak, Parliamentary Secretaries Cherak W. Momin and Marthon Sangma, Deputy Commissioner H.B. Marak and MD, MIDC, P. Marbaniang were among others who also spoke on the occasion.