GUWAHATI, Feb 16 – Prof DP Agarwal, former Chairman of Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), New Delhi, inaugurated the three-day sixth North East Graduate Congress (NEGC) at the University of Science & Technology, Meghalaya (USTM) on Friday.
A number of distinguished persons ranging from youth icons, intellectuals, academics, cultural and sports icons, politicians and motivational speakers addressed the NEGC that aims at grooming the youths of the region with a holistic approach.
Addressing a large gathering of several thousand college students from all over the North East at the central auditorium of the USTM today, Hardik Patel, youth leader from Gujarat, said that quality education, inexpensive education and youth development were the three important things that the youth of today want.
Panel discussions on ‘Youth, Politics and Corruption’ were also held. Ruchi Gupta, AICC joint secretary and in-charge of NSUI, said that youth of the country constituted 60 per cent of the population and if the Government was not providing required money in the education sector, the youth were bound to be adversely affected.
Jignesh Mevani, MLA from Gujarat, in his speech, said that the biggest politics in the country was to keep students away from politics, “but we must be part of politics or at least political intervention.”
Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, former Chief Minister of Assam; Rohit Chahal, national media in-charge, BJP (Youth Wing) and Allantry Dkhar, vice president of UDP, Meghalaya, also delivered speeches.
Earlier, welcoming the participants, Mahbubul Hoque, Chancellor of USTM, exhorted the youth of the North East to take a strong lead so that peace and harmony of the region could be maintained, as people with vested interests were trying to diminish its image.
“Our youth have special talent and capability. Let us explore this talent and make our region empowered in terms of economic and educational development,” he added.
The NEGC has been a confluence of students’ community of undergraduate level held every year since 2012 under the aegis of the USTM. The event aims at preparing and enhancing all-round development of future graduates by guiding them and placing them in a position where they can decide what is next after graduation.
Separate sessions were held simultaneously at different venues at the USTM. A session on personality development was taken by renowned motivational speaker Thomas John Rose, while Prof DP Agarwal, former UPSC Chairman, took a session on ‘Decision Making Process: Role of Youth in Context with NE’. Different competitions such as a debate on ‘Citizenship Amendment Bill 2016’, quiz, best graduate, extempore speech, photography, skit, ethnic show, on-the-spot painting, volleyball, football, cricket, badminton, kabaddi, power lifting, group dance, group song, etc., are being held for students.
