The Hindu : National : NRI youths air their grievances

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 08, 2007
ePaper

National

National

NRI youths air their grievances

Special Correspondent

We have much to achieve: Sachin Pilot

NEW DELHI: There were complaints galore against Indian politicians and bureaucrats from the Indian youth overseas, until a young Parliamentarian floored them all. This was at a session on `Driving India's Development' during the three-day Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas celebrations that began here on Sunday.

"The universities are not connected, there is no knowledge sharing and the libraries are not interlinked," said Anand Sharma from the United Kingdom. Three-hundred and seventy universities and none of them connected, is surprising, he pointed out as he also complained of the mikes that never worked.

Hearing him out patiently, young Parliamentarian Sachin Pilot — who was on the dais along with Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office, Prithviraj Chauhan — said, " We have a larger agenda of imparting basic education to millions of people before we move on to satellite connectivity and related issues. Both the things are happening simultaneously, though we have much to achieve," he said amidst loud applause from the audience.

Sunjyev Mahajan from New Jersey said the Government should spell out policies so that those who want to engage themselves in India's development know where they fit in. "The Government wants a feedback but who is there to listen to us?"

A suggestion for devising a programme to involve the youth in development came from Pawan Kumar of the U.K. who said that there were long queues of young people who wanted to come to India for this but did not know how to go about it.

Carol from New York was unhappy because she felt the people, particularly bureaucrats, were not receptive to suggestions from youth.

Recommending career development sessions for young people in India, Shekhar Prasad of Canada said it would tap the potential of the people better than allowing them to do what their parents wanted them to do.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National