Naveen launches KISS Kalahandi residential school

The initiative will supplement Govt’s effort to impart quality education: says CM

By Susant Kumar Dalai

Bhawanipatna, June 18: Odisha Chief Minister Shri Naveen Patnaik on Friday inaugurated the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) ‘KISS-Kalahandi’ Residential School.

The sprawling eco-friendly and Wi-Fi green campus has come up at Badli under Bhawanipatna Block in the Kalahandi District.

“I am very happy to have inaugurated the KISS campus in Kalahandi district. I thank KIIT & KISS Founder Dr. Achyuta Samanta. Kalahandi has transformed into a new education hub,” the Chief Minister said while inaugurating the campus.

KISS has been opening schools across the state to provide quality education to poor and underprivileged children. The KISS pass-out students are also getting success in different fields, he underlined.

Education is the medium of transformation. One’s life can change through education. The state government has been giving importance to education. Through the 5T initiative of the Odisha government, more than four thousand schools have been changed. The contribution of KISS will help and promote more to the state government in giving quality education to all children of the state, the CM added.

Kalahandi MP Basanta Kumar Panda said Dr. Samanta has been giving his best for the development of tribals through education. Hundreds have established organizations, but a few people can get a chance to serve people through their organizations. He lauded Dr. Samanta for KISS Kalahandi. All should support Dr. Samanta for his noble initiative, he added.

Rajyasabha MP Sujit Kumar said the state government has introduced many schemes for the development of tribals. He focused on instrumental and transformative development, which KISS has already been doing. Students who will pass out from KISS-Kalahandi would bring laurels to the district as well as the state, he said.

Lanjigarh MLA Pradeep Kumar Dishari said, under the leadership of Naveen Patnaik, Kalahandi has now turned into an education hub. The district has improved significantly in the education sector. With the opening of KISS in Kalahandi, the education sector will get a big fillip, he added.

In his welcome address Dr. Achyuta Samanta, Founder, KIIT & KISS and MP Kandhamal said, KIIT has built the KISS-Kalahandi campus. It has entailed an investment of Rs. 50 crore for land and infrastructural development in 1, 20, 000 sq.ft built-up area, apart from setting up of mechanized kitchen, a 25-bed hospital, furniture and fixture and other facilities in the 10 acres land.

The KISS- Kalahandi is fully free residential school like KISS-Bhubaneswar. In the first phase, the school will have the strength of 1200 students from standard-1 to standard-12 and provide quality education to poor and underprivileged tribal children of Kalahandi District. During this occasion Dr. Samanta declared that, on behalf of KIMS a 200-bed hospital will be opened in Kalahandi.

In 2020, two new campuses came up in Mayurbhanj and Balangir districts and both these campuses were inaugurated by Sri Naveen Patnaik, Chief Minister of Odisha. Recently KISS Balasore Branch ‘Emami –KISS’ has been inaugurated by Chief Minister Patnaik. Though the branches in Balasore and Kalahandi districts had been completed, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, these two branches could not be inaugurated on time.