UGC VC against uprooting rural poor for SEZs

Updated on: Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Madurai: The Vice Chairman UGC Ved Prakash opposed setting up of Special Economic Zones by uprooting the rural poor.

There was also a need to debate on creating Special Economic Zones by pumping in lot of money, he said. 'But what poor land holders get is only peanuts. What benefit do poor people get..they are only being uprooted by SEZs,' he said, addressing the 43rd Annual Convocation of the Madurai Kamaraj University here.

He also stressed the need for providing the poor who were being uprooted, skills so that they could also be benefitted in case there was no otheralternative except setting up SEZs.
Stating that out of 483 Universities and 20876 colleges only some were very successful,he said Teachers and students should traverse a long distance and work hard to improve the internal efficiency of the Universities with a view to churning out high-achieving students.

He also felt that the development of big cities like Chennai and Delhi were being done at the cost of the rural people,and wanted development to be spreadover the nation.

The teaching methods in the Universities should help students find solutions to the problems faced by society.They should help the students invent technologies and transfer them for the benefit of rural people.
There was no use if the country was having the largest system of education and it was not able to solve the basic problems of the people. Similarly the success of the Universities and institutes would depend on how best the skills of the students were recognised by those who provided jobs.

University Vice chancellor R.Karpaga Kumaravel said the University was offering various short-term self-employment certificate courses for the benefit of educated unemployed youths.

The study materials of the Distance Education programmes had been converted into self-instructional materials. The University had got a total grant of Rs.16.50 crore. As many as 47,463 students received degrees in person and in absentia .Of them 234 persons received doctorate degrees.

UGC VC against uprooting rural poor for SEZs

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