Subimal Bhattacharjee addresses trainee-students at Assam Legislative Assembly

July 12: The month long Internship and Fellowship Programme organised by Assam Legislative Assembly going on in full swing. Renowned experts from diverse fields are interacting everyday with the students. On Friday, Subimal Bhattacharjee gave a brilliant deliberation before the talented student-participants.

In 2018, Assam Legislative Assembly Speaker Hitendra Nath Goswami  launched Internship Programme for students of the state with the basic objective of acquainting them with the working of Parliamentary democracy. This programme was highly appreciated from several quarters. This year too, the 2nd batch of Internship Programme kick started from 1 July, 2019.

A total of 30 students of the state studying in different educational institutions are taking part in it. They were selected from among 800 applicants. The whole selection process was conducted on merit merit basis and is managed by a team of MLA’s guided by noted journalist Samudragupta Kashyap as the mentor.

This year the focus of the fellowship is on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and the young brains are working on the deliberations and questions raised in the Assam Assembly on SDGs. Subimal Bhattacharjee spoke on how SDGs impact the global fight against poverty and development and also facts in sustainable development. He raised the issue of how Assam’s progress can be further improved in the NITI Aayog rankings on SDG base index that was released last December where Assam was an aspirant state lowest in the order. He motivated the participants to become experts in their areas of SDGs and then help the development of the state. He also touched upon on how Assam can cover the losses incurred during years of agitation and violence by proper implementation of SDGs.

In 2015, Mr. Bhattacharjee was an expert for the UN Hq in New York for the impact of ICT on SDG and the committee concluded that 11 of the 17 SDGs were impacted by ICT. It was an interactive session and the students too raised pertinent issues which were satisfactorily replied to by Subimal Bhattacharjee.

The 30 selected students include 13 from the post graduate level and 17 from the under graduate level of the State studying in various colleges and universities. The first internship programme launched in 2018 had only 20 student participants. The students will also get the opportunity to interact with a number of resource persons comprising ministers, MLAs, senior government officials, university and IIT professors as well as officials from UNICEF.