UT Bureau | Ukhrul, Aug 19: Ukhrul Times on August 8, took keen interest into the Thsuruhu Kiphimi Kuqhakulu Students Union’s (TKKSU) passionate initiative in helping students from Tsurhu Village, a Sema Naga Village under Zunheboto district, Nagaland to appear their online exam at dense forest for lack of network connectivity.
With the help of local Pastor and local Student Union, around 39 students (the number must have gone up now) from the village took online exams in the jungle in a particular spot, the only area inside the dense forest to receive internet connectivity in the entire village.
A number of national media outlets took interest and reported about these particular students in the jungle. The message was well received and seemed amplified enough for a good debate primarily on online learning in the interior parts of Northeast states and villages.
This particular photo Ukhrul Times picked, demonstrates the lack of the Centre and State political will to take along North East villages even after her 74 years of Independence. When Delhi talks of National Education Policy 2020 and 5G fiber optic network for India, people in rural North East still rely on old 2G network. The power supply in hill districts are untenable for private business owners and private institutions. The National Highways connecting Nagaland and Manipur from Assam is in it’s most deplorable condition.
The sheer struggle and frustration
Ukhrul Times bureau couldn’t complete filing this report because of the constant power outage the whole week. To put it bluntly, at the time of writing this report BSNL service was totally off, Jio network was barely at 10%. All this at Ukhrul District Headquarters. Tamenglong is a survivor. You don’t begin a conversation with a person from Tamenglong talking about road connectivity. That’ll be a recipe for disaster to befriend (See photo below). What about the villages in the districts? Let’s not even begin and talk about Ukhrul town road.
While the valley enjoys uninterrupted power supply, uninterrupted network, a much better road connectivity, well equipped Health Care, wide variety of Private and National Banks, the popular slogan Ching Tam Amatani seems rather deafening.
