GUWAHATI: Assam government will soon write to the centre to declare birth anniversary of Vaishnavite saint Srimanta Sankardeva as national holiday and include his life and works in NCERT syllabus.
Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal announced the decision in a meeting he had with Srimanta Sankardeva Sangha delegates at Janata Bhawan on Monday.
The other major issues discussed in the meeting were:
- State government will celebrate birth anniversary of Vaishnavite saint, pioneer of Assamese culture and literature and social reformer Srimanta Sankardeva officially for the first time.
- CM Sarbananda Sonowal asked Nagaon deputy commissioner to allot 350 bigha of additional land to Srimanta Sankardeva University.
- Sangha on its own is running 56 schools and 4 colleges, the representatives informed chief minister.
- Srimanta Sankardeva Sangha office bearers requested chief minister to run Srimanta Sankardeva University with a partnership between state government and sangha.
- State government will help Srimanta Sankardeva Sangha to invite vice-president Venkaiah Naidu to Sangha’s upcoming conference.
- Sangha functionaries requested CM Sarbananda Sonowal to create a corpus fund for Srimanta Sankardeva Sangha. Sonowal assured them to do that shortly.
- Sonowal also apprised the delegation about the initiatives taken by the State government for the development of Batadrava the birthplace of Srimanta Sankardeva and asked PWD (R) to widen the road leading to Batadrava Thaan.
Along with chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal, the meeting was attended by additional chief secretary Manindar Singh, secretary and commissioner of cultural affairs department Preetom Saikia, secretary to CM Ranjan Chakrabarty, office bearers of Srimanta Sankardeva Sangha Bhabendranath Deka, Kamalakanta Gogoi, Basundhar Deka and Kushal Thakuriya.
