Odisha MP Aspires to Set Up Free Educational Institutes in Tribal Areas
Odisha MP Achyuta Samanta and Founder of KIIT and KISS is now taking initiatives to provide tribal and poor students with higher education facilities throughout the country.
After the success of the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) which provides more than 30,000 tribal students with free education, its founder, an MP from Odisha. Achyuta Samanta has announced that 10 new institutes of such kind will come up in the tribal-dominated area in the next few years. It will be satellite institutes situated in various backward places of Odisha under the parent institute situated at the state capital Bhubaneswar.
During an interview, Samanta informed these institutes will be influential for higher education to poor students who fail to pursue higher education despite being highly talented and meritorious. The poverty leads them to earn their daily bread and they fail to pursue academics.
With the help of an NGO, KISS has almost completed setting up a new institute at Joka, which falls on the outskirts of Kolkata. Mr. Samanta informed me that the Joka institute will start functioning from 2020.
In a KBC episode, sharing the screen with Legendary Cinema Personality Amitabh Bacchan, Samanta told that he hails from a very poor family of Cuttak District of Odisha is now working to set up similar institutes in Bihar and Jharkhand. He informed that his initiatives are helping the needy in their neighbouring country of Bangladesh as well. With the help of an NGO, KISS is providing poor girls with education in Dhaka and a Boys education institute has been set up in Jessore with the help of a Private University in Bangladesh.
Kalinga Insitute of Social Sciences (KISS) has been found in 1993 with the aim to provide education and healthcare facilities to indigenous poor students of the state. It gives free education from kindergarten level to post-graduation.
Mr Samanta informed that the tribal sportsperson of International Fame, Sprinter Dutee Chand is an alumnus of KISS institute. The MP appealed to people from the tv show to contribute to the welfare of education in India.
When he was asked about the source of funds for the institute, the MP of Odisha’s ruling party Biju Janata Dal (BJD) said that half of its funding comes as a turnover from another institute set up by his initiative, Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT). Other portions of the funds come from donations and the sale of products made by students.
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He praised the CM of Odisha Mr. Naveen Pattnaik for helping and inspiring him for the success of KISS. He also helped to set up KIIT which is now hailed as one of the best private technological institutes in India. The institute does not just attract students from various states in India but also from different parts of the world. The Union Government has recognised KIIT as the Insitute of Eminence (IoE) as well.
KIIT will be hosting ‘Khelo India’, the national inter-university tournament by the central government in 2020.