Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal inaugurated Vivekananda Kendra NRL School of Nursing at a programme held at Numaligarh on Saturday.
Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) which was set up on April 22, 1993 as an offshoot of Assam Accord, set up this School of Nursing with an objective of providing nursing skills to under-privileged girl students in the vicinity of Numaligarh Refinery.
The school will be operated by VKNRL Nursing School Trust which has been created with trustees from Vivekananda Kendra and NRL.
It may be noted that the school has been built on a plot of land measuring 10 bighas which has been taken on lease from ASIDC and the entire project cost is Rs 26 crore. The school of nursing will be providing General Nursing and Midwifery Course (GNM) with three years duration and a certification course where diploma will be given by Assam Nurses Midwives’ and Health Visitors Council, Guwahati.
Speaking on the occasion, Chief Minister Sonowal said that the VKNRL School of Nursing is a way towards paying tributes to 855 martyrs who sacrificed their lives in Assam Agitation, named after the great son of the nation Swami Vivekananda, Chief Minister Sonowal said that the school will be an effort to materialise the maxim of Vivekananda, ‘Service to man is Service to God’.
Sonowal at the same time advised the students of the school to imbibe human values, empathy and compassion to serve the people. He also said that the vocation of nursing needs human values like kindness, dutifulness, compassion and they should inculcate these qualities while they will be undertaking the course so that they become great human resource of the State and model of nursing.
He also called upon the trustees of VKNRL School of Nursing to render quality and value-based education so that the school becomes an epitome of ‘sustainability with quality’. He also said the school of nursing would also eulogise the adage ‘health is wealth’ by generating awareness among the fringe population and outside to maintain good lifestyle and good health to do good service towards society.
Giving a snapshot of all the health-related schemes of the State Government, Sonowal asked the people at large to take benefits of the health schemes like Chief Minister’s Free Diagnostic services, Atal Amrit Abhiyan, etc. He also stated that for the people hailing from the tea garden areas, apart from free medicines, 80 mobile medical units have been pushed into service by the Government.
Agriculture Minister Atul Bora while speaking on the occasion thanked NRL for setting up the nursing school as a part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and requested the company to take up more such projects for the welfare of fringe area people of Numaligarh.
Water Resources Minister Keshab Mahanta, who also spoke on the occasion, urged upon the officers and employees of NRL to keep in mind the supreme sacrifices of the martyrs of Assam Agitation and put their best efforts for the economic prosperity of the State.
Chief Minister Sonowal also planted saplings in the campus of the Nursing School and also inaugurated the Pipe Natural Gas Supply Network of Numaligarh Refinery Township.
MLA Sarupothar Roselina Tirkey also spoke on the occasion. Managing Director of NRL SK Barua, functionaries from Vivekananda Kendra and NRL and several other dignitaries were present on the occasion.