Assam to set up soccer, archery institutes in tea areas

The Assam government has decided to set up three football and archery training institutes in the tea community dominated areas of the north-eastern state.

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal announced this on Friday after holding a discussion with the Tea Tribe Welfare Department of the state government to chalk out strategies for the empowerment of tea tribe communities.

Taking note on the inherent qualities of the youths belonging to tea tribes, Sonowal said that the proposed residential institutes will be mandated to hone the football and archery skills of the youths from the community.

Sonowal also directed that the training institutes should be structured in a way that the institutes become exhaustive centres for educational, health and physical development of the youths from the community.

The state government also decided to enhance scholarship amount of the tea tribe communities and accordingly the existing scholarship amount of Rs 1,880 has been increased to Rs 5,000 for the youths from Classes 10 and 12 annually. For the degree level Students the existing scholarship amount of Rs 2,530 has been enhanced to Rs 7,000, he said.

The government has also decided to build a Patient Guest House at the Guwahati Medical College Hospital (GMCH) and all the members of the tea tribe community will be covered under an insurance plan to be sponsored by the state government.

The meeting also decided to hold state-level workshop on 'Jhumur' (the traditional dance of tea tribes community) and training camps in 39 sub-divisions of the state.

Besides, to encourage the literary pursuits of the tea garden communities, the Chief Minister has asked Tea Tribe Welfare Department to take steps for publishing at least five books written by writers from the community each year.

--IANS

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