Each of the Uttar Pradesh universities will soon adopt five villages and colleges one each in the state and contribute to their development, Governor Anandiben Patel said on Thursday.
Patel made the announcement about Uttar Pradesh educational institutions replicating the practice prevalent in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh during her convocation address at the Madan Mohan Malaviya University of Technology here at Gorakhpur.
"Every state university of Uttar Pradesh will soon adopt five villages and each college will adopt one," said Patel, also the chancellor of all universities in the state.
"The blue print detailing the activities to be performed in adopted villages will be given to vice chancellors and when all will join hands and work in rural areas, the picture of the state will be changed in five years," she said.
"The model was adopted in Gujarat and MP and the results are satisfactory," added the governor.
Speaking on the occasion, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also advised students to play a proactive role in the development of society instead of only running for jobs after getting degrees.
Adityanath said the convocation ceremony is keeping alive the tradition of 'gurukuls' that motivates students to speak the truth, follow the right path and carry self-study, an official release said.
Noting that engineering students can play a major role in various fields, he said students must come forward for the successful implementation of the 'har ghar nal'
scheme, aimed at supplying potable water to every household by 2024.
The chief minister also called upon various technological institutes to make their own contribution in the development of the society.
"Technological institutes also must come forward to help in implementing pollution control measures and contribute their expertise in building affordable houses for the underprivileged," he said.
Referring to the importance of technology in multiple fields, the chief minister said it has helped tremendously in proper distribution of foodgrains by linking Aadhaar with ration cards and installing electronic point of sale (e-pos) machines at ration shops.
"This has also helped in checking corruption at various levels besides helping the government save crores of rupees. Today, people are able to buy wheat at Rs 2 per kg and rice at Rs 3 per kg," he pointed out.
Referring to his efforts to tackle the dreaded encephalitis disease, he said, "I fought a 25-year-long battle against encephalitis. Many people succumbed to this disease between 1977 and 2017. However, after the formation of the BJP government in the state, we launched various awareness drives which have helped in checking the spread of encephalitis."
"Since 2014, around 50 crore people have been linked to Ayushman Bharat Yojana of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while over 2.5 crore citizens have been given houses," he said.
Earlier, Adityanath expressed gratitude to Governor Patel for coming to Gorakhpur for the first time after assuming office in Raj Bhawan.
He also congratulated Infosys founder NR Narayan Murthy on being conferred an honorary doctorate degree at the event.
The chief minister also congratulated students who were conferred the graduation and post-graduation degrees.
MMMUT Vice Chancellor Srinivas and Principal Secretary (Technical Education) Radha Chauhan were also present on the occasion.
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