GUWAHATI, April 11 - Against the HRD Ministry�s move to close down the Technical Support Group (TSG) of the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan for the eight North-Eastern States, the employees of the group have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking his intervention to roll back the decision.
The TSG that caters to all the North-Eastern States, including Sikkim, is crucial for collection of data, supporting the SSA projects, data analysis, field visits for verification of important information, interaction with the State bodies and providing reports, etc., on behalf of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India.
According to sources, the decision to close down the unit has been taken up as part of the Ministry�s cost-cutting agenda.
The TSG was established by the Ministry with the logistic support of EdCIL (India) Limited, a Central PSU, at Guwahati in July, 2006. The vision of this group was to bridge the gap between the MHRD and elementary education in all the North-Eastern States. This office is directly monitored by the Ministry.
According to the sources, the office is supposed to be closed from June this year and the necessary support for the NE will be given from New Delhi.
�Managing the project in the North-East by the consultants and other Central Government officials staying in New Delhi is very difficult. Most of the times such officials are reluctant to visit the region, especially the interior areas, in the absence of a local office in Guwahati,� the sources added.
�Through the letter to the Prime Minister, the employees of the TSG have sought his intervention so that the regional office continues to operate for facilitating better services to elementary education in the entire region,� said Chandan Sarma, an employee of the TSG, NE.
