Lumdung: Chief Minister Pema Khandu on Wednesday inaugurated the newly constructed infrastructure of the Rama Krishna Mission (RKM) School at its permanent campus here in East Kameng district.
The infrastructure included an administrative block (Saradananda Bhawan), academic block (Vivekananda Bhawan), activity block (Nivedita Bhawan) and a science laboratory named after deceased legislator Jambey Tashi.
The chief minister had laid the foundation stone for the project on October 9, 2018.
Addressing the event, Khandu praised the quality of the buildings and credited the secretary of the school, Swami Sarvagananda, for personally supervising the execution of the infrastructure. He further added that the engineers of government departments could learn a thing or two about maintaining quality on tight budgets from the Swamijis.
The chief minister also expressed gratitude to the people of Lumdung for donating land for the establishment of the school and giving the authorities a free hand in creating school infrastructure. He stated that the western sector of Arunachal had long awaited the establishment of an RKM school, with the central sector getting its first RKM School at Aalo in 1966 and the eastern sector at Narottamnagar in 1972.
Khandu informed that since 2018, the government has spent Rs 36.75 crore in establishing and developing the Lumdung RKM. He added that the government has allocated Rs 29.3 crores for the school as grants-in-aid in this year’s budget and will be developing the school up to the higher secondary level, for which sufficient funds will be provided.
Acknowledging the role of RKM schools in providing quality education to the youth of the state, the Chief Minister revealed that this year, Rs 7 crore grants-in-aid has been allocated for the school at Narottamnagar, and Rs 5 crore has been sanctioned for the construction of a Golden Jubilee Hall at the school. The government has also sanctioned Rs 6 crore for the construction of a boy’s hostel in the same school.
Khandu reiterated the state government’s commitment to revamp the education scenario in the state and to concentrate on running schools with proper infrastructure, sufficient numbers of teachers, and students providing quality education.
Among others, the event was attended by dignitaries, including Union Law minister Kiren Rijiju, and local legislator and state cabinet minister Mama Natung, Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission vice-president Swami Gautamananda and Ramakrishna Mission assistant general secretary Swami Bodhasarananda.
CM Khandu on the day also unveiled the statue of ‘Ato Ringso,’ great-grandfather of the Natung clan and inaugurated the convention hall named after him.
He later inaugurated the three-day inter-tribe youth festival – Yuva Samanvay, along with Rijiju and others.
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