Sangma meets Nagaland Garos

SHILLONG, Dec 20 (NNN): Union Minister of States for Rural Development Agatha Sangma met the members of the Nagaland Garo Tribal Council, Dimapur (NGTC) and Garo Students’ Union (GSU), Nagaland zone at Niathu resort, Dimapur on December 19.
 
During the meeting, the two organizations led by Tarun Chandra Momin, president, NGTC and Biplab K Sangma, president, GSU, Nagaland zone jointly submitted a memorandum to the Union Minister of States.
The memorandum pointed out that “the Garo tribe in Nagaland is pathetically lacking behind in the field of education, economy, tradition and culture.”
“Only during the past few years after constituting a few civil bodies like NGTC, GSU, Nagaland zone and Garo Mothers’ Association we are trying to cope with these problems of ours. But due to lack of sufficient funds with us, we haven’t been able to make any headway towards mitigating these problems,” the memorandum stated.
The memorandum appealed the Union Minister of States for granting few facilities like “a Garo students’ community hall with bare amenities to facilitate the students in pursuing their endeavors, a Nagaland Garo council hall with bare accommodation so as to bring the tribe under an umbrella, an income generation project for the downtrodden Garo women, a project which will take care of the Garo traditional handloom sector and thereby offer ample scope for income generation to the people and a fishery development project exclusively for the NGTC to augment its fund resources so that it can take up various developmental schemes on its own for the society.”
The memo also enlightened that “earlier in Nagaland including in the Garo inhabited areas, one teacher who belong to the tribe of the particular village and who knows the local dialect of the village used to be appointed as primary school teacher.
This policy existed for the convenience of the children so that the teacher could communicate with the local children and impart education effectively.
Earlier one Garo teacher used to be selected for every school in terms of the above stated policy of the Government of Nagaland. But at present there is not a single Garo teacher in all the primary schools located in the Garo villages, the statement stated.
The memo requested the Union Minister to pursue the matter to the concerned Minister and Chief Minister of Nagaland.