Tamilisai Soundararajan, Governor of Telangana, virtually inaugurated two new women’s hostel blocks -- Marie Curie block and Dr. Muthulakshmi Reddy block -- and a vermi-composting unit at the Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), Vellore, on Wednesday.
After the inauguration, the Governor said that students should have confidence and courage in life so that they can achieve a lot. “Don’t give excuses in life but be committed because when you are committed, you will do things even though you don’t like those things,” she said.
Pointing out that education should reform people, Dr. Tamilisai Soundararajan said that education should develop and cultivate students as good citizens. “Whenever I go to an education institution, I always salute teachers as they are dedicated and teach us good things and because of them we are in top positions in life today,” she said.
G. Viswanathan, Chancellor, VIT, said that the government should provide free higher education to all and if that was not possible, at least for girls. He said that this would prevent child marriages and also increase the percentage of the workforce of women.
“About 30 countries in the world are offering free education and I want India also to provide free education. Giving a place for women in the State Assembly and Parliament is one of the ways to empower women in the country. We have been discussing this for a long time. A Bill for this was tabled in the Parliament 20 years ago and it is still pending. I hope the present Central government will take interest in this and pass the Bill to empower women in the country,” he said.
He pointed out that at VIT, the hostel blocks are named after top leaders and scientists to inspire students. “For example, we have Jhansi Rani ladies hostel block, Indira Gandhi ladies hostel block. Now we have named two new ladies hostel blocks with names of Madame Marie Curie and Dr. Muthulakshmi Reddy,” Mr. Viswanathan added.
Kadhambari S. Viswanathan, assistant vice president, VIT, Sankar Viswanathan, vice president, Rambabu Kodali, vice chancellor, S. Narayanan, pro-vice chancellor and K. Sathiyanarayanan, registrar, VIT were also present during the virtual inauguration.
