Central Tribal University of Andhra Pradesh (CTUAP) will be a full-fledged institution in two years, according to its Vice-Chancellor T.V. Kattimani. He hopes the State government will finalise site for the varsity as early as possible as Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy is keen on having it the tribal belt of Vizianagaram district.
Speaking to The Hindu, the Vice-Chancellor said a team from Centre recently visited Kottaki village of Saluru Assembly constituency (Reserved for Scheduled Tribes) to study feasibility as the AP government is not keen on Relli village of Kothavalasa mandal where the university was proposed during the TDP regime.
At present, CTUAP has been functioning from Andhra University buildings, Vizianagaram, by offering six different courses for both tribals and non-tribal students.
Dr. Kattimani, who previously worked as Vice-Chancellor of Indira Gandhi National Tribal University, Amarkantak of Madhya Pradesh, said that CTUAP would be developed to meet the national standards while ensuring higher education for all students apart from the tribal youth. “IGNTU-Madhya Pradesh, which started its journey with nearly 500 students in 2014, now offers higher education to nearly 6,000 students. All the departments have full-fledged faculty, laboratories and other facilities. The planning and execution in making it as the best university will certainly help me to develop CTUAP on similar lines,” he said.
Job-oriented courses
“Every student who pursue higher education here will have a decent career. We are planning job-oriented courses. We will involve them to understand the importance of local industries too. Certainly, it motivates them to be entrepreneurs. Apart from classroom study, all the students will be sent for field studies and training programmes,” he added.
“We have been discussing with experts and others to rejuvenate local industries. A special research will be done on Bobbili veena, Ponduru khadi and mango jelly. Special focus will be on tribal medicines and products,” said Dr. Kattimani who is also a member of National Educational Policy team.
“Fortunately, we are getting good response from all stakeholders, including pharmaceutical companies. As the North Andhra region is known as pharma hub, we will start pharmaceutical-related courses to ensure jobs for youngsters. We will hold meetings with industrial heads to know their requirement so that the curriculum will be designed to suit their needs,” said Dr. Kattimani who hails from Karnataka.