Vol: 4 | No.: 5 | June 15, 2010 Lab newspaper of Media Education Research Centre for private circulation only

3 4 7Sorry State of schools

2teachers, 2classes for 200students

Arif Hussain Nadaf/ Firdoose Ul Islam

Notwithstanding the claims of successive governments of improving the education scenario in the valley, the condition of government schools, particularly in rural areas, depicts the sorry state of affairs. Government Primary school at Dardpora village in Kupwara district is a case in point. The school is run in two rented rooms with 200 students on rolls. In the name of teaching staff, it has only two teachers.

The school teachers admit the

problems faced by the students due to insufficient space and teaching staff besides other basic facilities.

“I approached concerned authorities many times about the problems faced by the students, but all in vain,” says Mushtaq Ahmad, the acting headmaster of the school, adding, “It is very challenging to control five classes at a time by two teachers.”

Dardpora has faced brunt of the ongoing turmoil. It has come to be known as “village of widows” with many local men being killed leaving behind widows and orphans. Now

with the poor condition of the school, the children of the affected families are also deprived of proper education.

Lal Jan, a 38-year-old widow, has two children Parvaiz Ahmad and Bilal Ahmad studying in 4th and 5th standard respectively.

“I have resorted to begging to make the ends meet. My children are not provided proper education in this school,” she complains.

Nazir Ahmad Khatana, one of the students studying in the fourth standard at the school, says, “Sometimes one teacher remains

absent and the other one has to deal with all the classes. We are also not provided the midday meals properly.”

The students have to face biting chill in winters and prickly heat in summer under the tin-roof.

Meanwhile, Zonal Education Officer, Mumtaz Ahmad blamed the villagers for “not cooperating” with the authorities.

“We need a piece of land in the village to construct a school building but the villagers are not ready,” he said.

About the lack of staff in the school, he said, “We will soon appoint two more teachers in the school under SSA (Sarva Sikhsha Abiyaan) scheme.”

About midday meals, Mumtaz said, “I thank you for informing me about the sad plight of school. I will soon look into the matter.”

Mughal Road holds promises for travel, tourism and trade

Wullar nearing extinction 4 yr-old order to remove

encroachments yet to be implemented

Drugs addiction gains ground in Baramulla

The students have to

face biting chill in winters

and prickly heat in

summer under the

tin-roof.

MERCTIMES 2

Lack of PG course hurts tourism aspirants ‘KU to introduce masters in tour and travel management from next year’

Mudassir Kuloo

Despite tourism being one of the major draws in Kashmir, universi-ties of the valley are yet to offer a post-graduate course in tourism to groom professionals trained for tourism business.

Although many colleges are running under-graduate courses in tourism, however, the students aspiring to pursue further studies in the field have to move outside the state. Not all students can af-ford to go outside the state and as such they are left with little choice but to opt for some other subject at the post-graduate level. Be-sides the students, it is also the tourism industry which is at the

loss.Imran Majeed, who pursued

tourism as one of the subjects from Amar Singh College said, “I was passionate about going for masters in tourism after my college, but I could not pursue my dream as no varsity or college offer post-gradu-ate course in this subject.”

Experts say that tourism can be mainstay of economy if valley is able to exploit it’s tourism poten-tial. For this, they say, Kashmir needs trained professionals, who can develop tourism sector on mod-ern lines. They say the state failed to develop its various tourist desti-nations on modern lines due to lack of trained tourism professionals.

Mushtaq, who earlier taught

tourism subject in various colleges of valley, said, “It is unfortunate that while government speaks a great deal about introducing ca-reer-oriented education, but noth-ing has been done to introduce tourism subject at the post gradu-ate level.”

Students pursuing tourism subject at under-graduate level complain about the lack of post-graduate courses in tourism. “If they can’t have a post-graduate courses in tourism in Kashmir then what is the fun of teaching tourism at under-graduate level?” questioned a group of students.

They maintain that tourism sector is the only field where trained professionals could be easi-

ly absorbed without much hassles.Meanwhile, in what could bring

a sigh of relief for the students as-piring for a career in tourism.

Director Business School of Kashmir University disclosed at a recently held function in the varsity’s Ghandi Bhavan that tourism related course will be in-troduced by the Business School next year.

“We are going to introduce masters in tour and travel manage-ment from the next year,” he said.

This step by University of Kashmir could pave way for aspir-ing students of tourism to pursue their dreams and help develop tourism sector of the valley on mod-ern lines.

Breaking the Taboo

More Kashmiri women pursuing careers in male domainRohi Jehan

Women in Kashmir, like else-where, are making a mark in fields earlier considered to be male domain. They are asserting that they can be as good, if not better, at jobs traditionally perceived to be belonging to men only. Women are no longer confined to fields such as education and nursing. They have ventured into previously male dom-inated fields such as accounting, media, law and others.

Majority of female students in Kashmir University, this reporter talked to, felt the urge to break the stereotype about their fields which they emphasized are no lon-ger male dominated.

Most students said their pro-fession is no longer male domi-nant.

A Law student, Munaza Rashid said that both men and women need to prove themselves and as such neither of them is dominant.

Masarat Yusuf of Media Edu-cation Research Center (MERC) said, “My profession is no longer male dominated. Time has changed now. Working shoulder to

shoulder with males has become identity of fe-males.”

While some students admitted that they land-ed up taking up the var-sity courses by chance, most of them expressed satisfaction and desire to excel in their respective fields. An MBA student, wishing anonymity, said, “My field has been evolving since the time of Adam and is still evolving so I want to be the part of the evolu-tion.”

When asked if they faced any opposition from their family members while choosing their fields, most of the stu-dents said they did not face any opposition.

Munaza and Sufaira Bashir of Law depart-ment said their parents encouraged them to choose their field.

Naveed Iqbal of MERC said though she had to face opposition from her family initially,

she eventually persuaded them by her strong deter-mination and conviction for her decision to take up the media course.

Most female students believe that women have the ability to excel in any field. They assert that women can compete with males shoulder to shoul-der. They do not want to lag behind any more.

On May 12, an exten-sion lecture on “Need for Gender Sensitization amongst teachers” was organized at Kashmir University’s Gandhi Bha-wan.

Speaking on the occa-sion, Prof Pam Rajput, Dean Faculty of Arts, Punjab University, deliv-ered said, “We need gender positive initiatives more than anything else to change the fate of women for better.”

She also added that both men and women need to be equally involved in this endeavour.

Women are no longer

confined to fields such

as education and nursing.

They have ventured

into previously

male dominated

fields.

MERCTIMES3

Sheikh Saleem

Like other water bodies of Kashmir valley, Wullar lake has been a victim of public and official apathy. The official indifference can be gauged from the fact that the orders to remove the illegal encroachments from the lake, which were issued four years back, are yet to be implemented.

The state has received Rs 300 crore from the central government for Rs 365 crore-Wullar conservation project. However, despite the package, around 12000 kanals of the lake are yet to be retrieved from the encroachment though the orders to this effect have been issued four years back.

In Bandipora alone, of the 11,853 kanals and 14 marlas of Wullar land, 4,121 kanals and 12 marlas are under the illegal occupation of government departments like Forest and Local Bodies though in 2006 the district administration (which

Wullar nearing extinction yr-old order to remove encroachments yet to be implemented

was then in based in Baramulla since Bandipora was yet to be accorded the district status) issued orders (government order No 524/Ft of 2006 dated October 14, 2006) to remove the encroachments.

The rest of the area- 7,732 kanal and two marlas- has been encroached upon by around 540 occupants of 15 villages in the vicinity of the lake. These unauthorized plantations and structures are yet to be removed.

Illegal plantations within the lake are also ailing the water body. Department of Forests, Rakhs, Farms and Local Bodies have consisting raised plantation entirely of willows including mostly species of Salix Alba (Buta veer) and Salix fragilis (Kreal veer) leaves which is polluting the Wullar waters.

Environmental experts have been warning that the lake, which is Asia’s largest fresh water reservoir, is fast turning into a vast marsh. They believe the lake has already entered the eutrophic stage, the process that stimulates the growth of aquatic plants

resulting in depletion of dissolved oxygen.

Stating that the government announcements about Wullar development have always been limited to paper work, Taha Mubashir, an environmentalist, says, “Successive governments have been announcing packages for Wullar development but the ground situation has not changed. Wullar is nearing extinction. In some years from now the lake may not be there anymore due to the growing pollution and encroachments.”

Mubashir is also the spokes-person of Kashmir Environment Protection Coordination Organiza-tion (KEPCO), which filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL No-345/06) over Wullar deterioration.

“Jhelum is acting as the main source of pollution and disturbance in the marine ecosystem which has led to degradation of lake hydroga-rphy,” Mubashir added.

Shah Mudasir, a social worker, believes dredging, de-silting and selective de-weeding of channels and streams which are connected with Wullar can be of great help in restoring the lake’s lost glory.

Pertinently, a survey conducted by Wetland International, South Asian Region, revealed that the lake had shrunk by 45 per cent from 217 sq km since 1911.

According to MLA Bandipora Nizam-ud-din Bhat, who is also the chairman of the Environment Committee of Legislative Assembly,

“Out of 365 crores, only 105 crores have been sanctioned by the central government. The government is yet to decide how to utilize the funds.”

He said the government has to decide whether the funds will be utilized by Wullar-Mansbal Development Authority, forest department or whether a separate authority will be constituted, adding, “The forest department has majority of encroachments on the lake.”

“The first priority is demarcation of Wullar lake; second, maintenance of water table and third priority is removal of encroachments and then beautification will be initiated,” MLA Bandipora said.

Meanwhile, according to Deputy Commissioner Bandipora, Muhammad Sharief Saud a team of experts is being constituted which will frame an action plan to restore the glory of the lake.

“Government is keen to restore Wullar for which funds have also been approved. Wullar development project will be initiated very soon with the removal of the encroachments,” Saud said.

Successive governments have been announcing

packages for Wullar development but

the ground situation has not

changed. In some years from now the

lake may not be there anymore due

to the growing encroachments.

MERCTIMES 4

Tulip Garden: Off season beautification lures visitors Adil Mushtaq/Jamsheed Rasool

Many people who have come to visit Tulip Garden have a sullen expression on their faces on reading the placard outside the garden which apologetically reads, “The tulip bloom is over”.

The dried out petals wearing a withered look cut a sorry figure for the internationally renowned garden. The tourists, however, take solace from the fact that the department of floriculture has done a lot of hard work to lure tourists in the off-season. Pertinently, many new varieties of flowers bloom in the late-spring sunshine much to the joy of visitors. Besides, the entry fee to the garden has been curtailed from Rs 50 to Rs 20.

Despite facing unfavourable weather in March which saw temperatures soaring to record high of 28 degree Celsius, the management of the garden slogged hard to make sure the tulips bloom at the right time.

“We even had to organise a mass prayer to make sure all goes well,” said the supervisor of the tulip garden.

“I came to see the bloom but was disappointed to see the bloom being over,” says Atul Mannnani, a tourist from Nagpur who is accompanied by his family.

A joyous Vishesh from the same place, smitten by the beauty of the garden, is of the view that tulip garden was more beautiful than some of the other Mughal gardens.

Rajiv Patel, a tourist from western state of Gujarat, however, opined that the garden is yet to be developed fully.

The lower middle-class of Kashmir had earlier shied away from visiting the garden because of the exorbitant price of the tickets.

“I am a family of six members and the price of the tickets for me accrues to about Rs 250 which a middle-class man like me cannot afford,” said a local resident.

People in the social circles even

venture to say that because of the pressure from the babus, the administration is reluctant to lower the cost.

“ T h e y want only the upper society and bureaucracy to visit the g a r d e n , ” said a social w o r k e r w i s h i n g anonymity.

“Maintenance of the tulips in both bloom season and off-season is a huge task which requires great monetary capital,” said an official of the garden.

Royal Route Restored Mughal Road holds promises for travel, tourism, trade

Mir Usman

The road once treaded by Mughal emperor Akbar to conquer Kashmir has been resurrected. The historic road dating back to 16th century links Bafliaz (a town in Poonch) and Shopian in south Kashmir.

The 85 km road stretch brings Poonch and Rajouri district closer to Srinagar. The road passes over Pir Panjal range, which is about 3500m in altitude (higher than Banihal pass which is about 2800m in height).

The construction project of this road was taken up in 1979 by the then Chief Minister of the state, Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah but it came to a halt as Bafliaz bridge was blown up by militants. The project was restarted in 2005 with an estimated cost of Rs 255 crores.

“We are very optimistic about the project. Hopefully the road will be opened for light traffic by the end of this year”, said Marcus Mathew, Project Manager Hindustan Construction Company (HCC).

The road is an alternative route for Srinagar-Jammu

Highway which passes through hostile terrain and is prone to landslides especially during winter months.

Mughal road also offers a safe passage for shepherds who had to otherwise bear the brunt of the dilapidated Srinagar-Jammu highway.

“Yeh rasta to jannat hai, koi khatra nahin(this route is heaven, no danger at all),”exclaims Bilal Ahmad, a shepherd accompanying

his flock of sheep and buffalloes.Srinagar-Jammu highway

remains blocked for most part of winter and as a result the valley remains cut off from the rest of the world. The closure of highway also hampers developmental activities which in turn leave a negative impact on Valley’s economy.

Mughal road is expected not only to reduce the distances but to be of great help to the local economy.

The scenic surroundings are also expected to boost tourist arrivals in the areas around Mughal Road. As a result many people are planning to put in huge investments in the area.

“We are planning to build hotels and restaurants in the area,” says Farooq Ahmad Dar, a local shopkeeper.

Places like Dabjan, which already has its share of visitors because of the famous “Naag” (spring) will appeal more tourists with improved road connectivity. The spring has medicinal value and is considered to be helpful for skin related disorders.

The road also harbors “Seven Sarais” where Mughals used to take rest during their long and arduous journeys. Although in ruins now, efforts are being made to restore their beauty.

The Mughal road will also help boost the inter-provincial trade and commerce.

Bashir Shah, a local fruit grower can’t wait to send his apple laden truck to Poonch.

“I will be the first to send my truck through this route,” he says.

MERCTIMES5

Pashmina disparity

Artisan’s light, Seller’s rofit

Adil Mushtaq Shah

They both deal in Pashmina. While one drives in a luxury car, the other cannot even afford basic education for his children.

Bashir Ahmed, 38, a resident of Woyil, Kangan is a Pashmina artisan by

profession. He has been hand embroidering Pashmina shawls since the age of thirteen.

He is a family of seven and five of them are employed in

Pashmina embroidery. His wife Saleema shuttles between roles of a housewife and a Pashmina embroiderer. The kids don’t go to school. Instead they learn the complex art of bringing a mere Pashmina shawl to life with threads of vivid colour, the shawls that could end up on the shoulders of a film star, a socialite or may be some politician.

On being asked about the educational prospects of his children, Bashir says, “Mein bache paren ne , ... tim din teibe (My children will not study, they will embroider).”

Bashir usually completes a ‘farad’ (a shawl) in a span of 3-9 months depending upon the type of work.

“I earn a meagre sum of Rs 3000. We have a family income of about Rs 9000. How am I supposed to educate my children with such meager resources?” asks Bashir.

Farooq Ahmed Kanna is the proprietor of Crescent Arts, a showroom in Mumbai’s Oberoi trident hotel. He buys shawls from various whole sellers in Srinagar. His customers include famous politicians, socialites and celebrities.

“We must understand that whoever invests a good deal of money in something will expect to earn a great deal of profit. Add to that the high variable and operational costs of having a showroom in a five

star hotel. We have to sell things at high prices to survive leave alone making profits,” Kanna says.

Ghulam Hassan earns his living by acting as a link between the wholesalers and the artisans, called as a wosta in local parlance.

“We are doing this job because our forefathers used to do the same. We are solely dependant upon this craft to make a living,” he says.

Hassan says he earns about 10000 rupees a month “that too after making lot of rounds of wholesalers’ houses”.

“This is a dying art and only people making good money out of it run showrooms in Delhi and Bombay,” he says.

Mushtaq Ahmed Shah is the proprietor of Seagull Traders. He deals

in Pashmina shawls prepared by the likes of Bashir Ahmed and Ghulam Hassan and supplies them to showroom owners in various parts of India.

“The making of a Pashmina shawl is a long, intricate and costly process. The manufacturers have to keep paying till the time a piece or so is sold,” says Shah.

On being asked about the deplorable economic conditions of basic artisans, Shah comments, “The problem with this trade is that there is a very long credit period and it leads to economic crisis, especially for workers from remote areas.”

“Yes, it is true that showroom owners in India and abroad are deriving the maximum out of this traditional craft,” he adds.

The making of a Pashmina

shawl is a long, intricate and

costly process. The

manufacturers have to keep

paying till the time a piece or

so is sold.

MERCTIMES 6

Uneven development main problem facing the world’

Asif Sultan

Elite power has always played decisive role in construction of social identity of India. This was stated by Professor of Political Economy and Globalization, Department of History, New York University, Dr David Ludden while speaking on ‘Imperial Histories and National Integration: Regional Problems in South Asia’ at Kashmir University’s Gandhi Bhawan on June 08.

The programme was held under ‘University Lecture Series Programme’ organized by office of

the Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences. The session was presided over by the Vice Chancellor of the University of Kashmir, Prof. Riyaz Punjabi.

Dr Ludden said imperialism emphasizes on inclusion while as nation states lay stress on homogenization; while discussing transition of south Asia from an ancient civilization to colonial territory and further to modern nation states.

He maintained that elite power has always played decisive role in construction of social identity of India.

Dr Ludden spoke about concepts of political economy, globalisation, liberalisation, territorial integrity and nationalism. Conflict he said has been an important element of emergence of nation states and another transition to globalization is also marked by conflict.

While discussing emerging trends in the contemporary polity in India, he made extensive references to ‘economic liberalisation’ ‘coalition politics’ and ‘capitalist approach’ to name a few.

He however expressed disappointment over the fact that instead of convergence, there was divergence in people and nations world over which he attributed “mainly to inequalities in economic opportunities”.

Dr Ludden opined that “uneven development” was the main problem with the world today as resources were not reaching those who needed it the most.

Speaking at the function, Vice Chancellor KU, Prof. Riyaz Punjabi emphasized need for interdisciplinary approach while studying social sciences. “This form of research and study has been neglected for a long time,” he said.

He asked scholars present to

take cue from the visiting dignitary who he said, “has combined scholarship in political science, economics and history”.

VC also announced formation of a high level committee to facilitate adoption of an interdisciplinary approach in Social Sciences.

Dr Ludden and Prof Nyla Ali Khan, Associate Professor of English & Multiculturalism, University of Nebraska-Kearney, USA, besides Dean Faculty of Social Sciences Prof. Noor A Baba and heads of departments of the concerned faculty would be members of the high level committee.

Earlier while welcoming guests, Dean Faculty of Social Science, Prof. Noor A Baba said dynamism and complexity of South Asia was unique and it presented scope of immense research. “In context of the fact that relationships between states within south Asia are still evolving, the lecture will give an insight into dynamics of evolving relationships” he said.

Dr Ludden’s research primarily concerns histories of development and globalization in long-term perspective. His published works include four edited volumes, three monographs, and over 50 academic articles and chapters.

Campus recruitment at KUCentral Bank of India team conducts interviews

Mehak Fayaz

A delegation of Central Bank of India visited Business School, Kashmir University on June 9 for campus recruitment of Management Trainees and Probationary Officers.

The delegation included Arun Koul, Executive Director, Central Bank of India, R Mishra, General Manager and Mr. R B Verma, Chief Manager (HRD). Central Bank of India is one of the oldest and largest banks of India having over 3600 Branches and over 36000 employees.

The recruitment process began with an introductory session, wherein Prof. Shabir A. Bhat, Director, The Business School, University of Kashmir welcomed delegates of the Bank for visiting the campus for recruitment. Prof. Shabir thanked Arun Koul Executive Director, R. Mishra,

General Manager of the bank for their keen interest in recruiting students of The Business School. He assured visiting delegation that the students had the capability and competence to compete with the

best in the world. While interacting with students

of the Business School, Koul expressed his appreciation for the standard of management education being imparted KU.

During his interaction, Koul spoke extensively about the financial sector in India, growth prospects of the Central Bank of India and career opportunities for budding managers. After the introductory session, the recruiting team conducted interviews for position of Management Trainees and Probationary Officers in the Central Bank of India.

Pertinent to mention that the Business School has already signed an MOU with HDFC Bank Ltd; one of the largest banks in India and has also launched a joint certification programme (JCP) in retail banking. Thirty students of the Business School have successfully completed this certificate programme, out of which six students have been recruited by the HDFC Bank Ltd.

MERCTIMES7

Drugs addiction gains ground in BaramullaSaqib Zargar/Saaib Wani

While the armed conflict hogged much of the attention, the menace of drug addiction has slowly but steadily taken roots in Kashmir valley. According to a United Nations International Drug Control Program (UNDCP) sponsored survey, Kashmir division alone has 70,000 drug addicts, including 4,000 women. North Kashmir’s Baramulla district has also witnessed increase in number of drug addicts. Pertinently, in 2007 a drug de-addiction cell was setup by local police in collaboration with district hospital Baramulla. It is one of three such centers in valley and among 122 centers across India.

However, the two room de-addiction cell lacks requisite staff rendering it more or less useless.

“I am the only one working here. There should have been counselors, physiatrists, pharmacists, nurses. There is not even a peon here,” says incharge drug de-addiction cell, Dr Riyaz said.

“I am single handedly running the cell since it started. This is not the only worrying factor. Drug addiction is increasing at a soaring rate among youth, and one of the main reasons is easy accessibility of drugs. There is a need of implementing drug laws at ground level,” he asserts.

Drug de-addiction cell in collaboration with local Idarah falah-e-dareen started an awareness campaign against drug addiction. In this regard they have created a separate cell to identify drug addicts and persuade them to give up drugs and go for rehabilitation. Moral and financial support is provided to victims and

their identity is kept confidential.Despite these efforts people

seem to be paying little attention towards the problem. This can be gauged from the fact that only 327 cases have been registered in past four years out of which only 120 were fully rehabilitated.

According to some media reports quoting officials in Baramulla District Hospital, an astounding 40 per cent of the population is involved in drug abuse. Quoting the data from Blood Bank Baramulla, the reports also suggest that 20 per cent of students in higher secondary schools and 30 per cent in colleges are consuming prohibited drugs.

Tahir (name changed) a 21-year-old college student and a resident of Baramulla was addicted to narcotics since he was in school.

Tahir who went through drug rehabilitation programme narrates, “I got access to drugs through one of my friends who used to take drugs. When my parents came to know about it they did not

over react and instead persuaded me to give up drugs and go for rehabilitation.”

Local NGO and experts fear that if the concerned authorities and people do not address this problem, it may assume disastrous proportion in near future.

Gagribal aquarium loses out on popularitySyed Adil

There is an aquarium unit at Gagribal on the banks of Dal Lake. However, very few people know about it. A marketing unit of the Fisheries Department, located adjacent to the unit, is on the contrary popular due to the occasional sale of trout and other fishes.

The government plan was to develop Gagribal aquarium unit into a huge aquarium. Even the construction work was started, but due to eruption of ongoing turmoil in 90’s the funds were diverted for the aquarium at Bagh-i-Bahu Jammu.

Gagribal unit at present consists of 20 aquariums with varying capacities from 100 litres to 500 litres. They mostly consist of fresh-water ornamental fishes like Gouramis, Gold Fishes and some local varieties found in Dal waters.

Aquariums units all over the world are known for being favourite tourist spots. The Gagribal aquarium, however, is not that popular with tourists. Some Fisheries students come to

the unit for project and research work.

There is an i n - b u i l t laboratory in the unit for safeguard of fishes and to maintain the proper water quality in the a q u a r i u m s . Hundreds of specimens of marine as well as fresh water fishes are also displayed in the unit.

According to Inspector Fisheries, Fayaz Ahmad Dar the department is trying to build big aquariums in the unit in order to attract tourists as well as students.

Senior Project Officer, Asifa Khan said that locals know Gagribal unit more as a marketing unit of trout but most of the people don’t know that there is also an aquarium unit here.

MERCTIMES

Patron: Prof. (Dr) Riyaz PunjabiEditorial team: Syed Adil, Asif Sultan, Mehak Fayaz, Firdoose Ul Islam

Chief Editor:Dr Shahid Rasool, Editor: Muslim Jan, Sub-Editor : Suhail Ahmad, Graphic Designer: Aga Shahie-mail: merctimes@gmail.com

The opinions expressed in the write ups are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the policy of MERC Times or the department of Media Education Research Centre

8

‘Theatre can be effective agent for social change’

Mansoor Altaf

Creative director of Ajoka Theatre of Paki-stan, Madeeha Gauhar visited Kashmir University on June 11 and interacted with students and faculty at Media House audito-rium and spoke on “Theatre as an agent of social change in contemporary Pakistan”.

Tracing the history of the theatre in the backdrop of socio-political situation prevail-ing in her country, Madeeha said,” Theatre can be an effective tool to bring in social change”.

Organised by the Institute of Kashmir Studies (IKS) KU, the session was presided over by the Vice Chancellor Prof Riyaz Pun-jabi.

Speaking on the occasion, Prof Punjabi, in his presidential remarks, underlined the importance of theatre in promoting social

consciousness, spiritual values and harmo-nious relations, which he termed as “essen-tial in present day circumstances” and added that “Spirituality binds us with each other”.

“The session bridged a communication gap,” said senior faculty member Media Edu-cation Research Centre (MERC), Nasir Mir-za while maintaining that the guest speaker shared her perspective on history besides her response as a theatre artist to the con-temporary situation in her country.

Earlier Prof M H Zafar while welcoming the visiting artist, appreciated the role of theatre in society. Prominent among those present on the occasion included Prof Gulshan Majeed of IKS, besides faculty members of MERC and EMMRC. Students and scholars of various departments attend-ed the lecture and participated in the ques-tion -answer session that followed.

‘Danish’ released Firdous Ahmad

The 27th volume of the annual Persian research journal Danish was re-leased at Kashmir Uni-versity on June 7. The reference journal, pub-lished by Post Graduate Department of Persian language Kashmir uni-versity, caters to the needs of students and scholars within and out-side the university.

Introduced in 1962 in Urdu by Prof Shams-ud-din Ahmed it was lat-er issued annually and it got fame at national and international level as well. The journal con-tains content in Persian, English and Urdu.

However, the journal focuses more on the Per-sian literature and con-tains research papers re-garding the development in the Persian language both in Indian and Indo-Persian context with spe-cial reference to Kash-mir. The journal also contains details about cultural heritage of Cen-tral Asia.

Head of the Persian department and Chief Editor of the journal, Prof M M Masoodi said, “The research work has been done purely in Per-sian context and for the interest of readers, we have introduced three languages at the same time.”

Ex-Director IIMA talks on ‘Transforming Govt’

Moazum Bhat/Nisar Khan

Noted Corporate Management Scholar and former Director of In-dia’s premiere B-School, Indian In-stitute of Management (IIM), Ah-madabad Prof. Pradip N Khandwalla delivered a lecture on ‘Transforming Government’ on the lines of his latest book ‘Transform-ing Government through New Pub-lic Management’ organized by Fac-ulty of Commerce and Management Studies, University of Kashmir at Varsity’s Ibn-e-Khaldoon Auditori-um on June 5.

He laid emphasis on account-ability and efficiency in good gover-nance saying the ‘Social Justice’ is impossible without bringing these

concepts into practice.Laying stress on need for good

governance, Prof. Khandwalla in his lecture said, “Everyone is affected by quality of governance in one way or the other and better governance is in interest of all of us”.

He said India was not the only country with malfunctioning in governance, but many countries around the globe had the same problem.

“I do not believe in imitating other countries models of gover-nance, instead we need to evolve our own model of governance. Be-sides this, we also need a global movement for better governance” he added.

Advocating a new paradigm in

management ‘New Public Manage-ment’ Prof. Khandwalla said the concept needs to be adopted as the model has performed well over the years. New Public management he said “is a broad concept used to de-scribe wave of public sector reforms throughout the world. Prof. Khand-walla said that the reform wave will lead to greater cost-efficiency for governments, without having side effects on other objectives and considerations. “Many countries are contributing to the paradigm and India too is playing its role in this global moment of improving governance.

Prof. Khandwalla also talked about 1950’s concept of ‘Inclusive Growth’ and said large chunk of money aimed at benefiting common people does not reach grassroots at all. “That is where we have to pay maximum attention” he added.

Vice Chancellor, Prof. Riyaz Punjabi in his presidential address said that if we have a look at the life of earlier scholars, astrono-mers, and other great scientists, they would simultaneously read po-etry and literature besides their own subjects. “Basic issue with us is the issue of creativity” said VC.

Principal Secretary to chief minister J&K Khursheed A Ganai

who was Chief guest at the event appreciated works of Prof. Khand-walla and said that his emphasis on creativity in his books is re-markable. Referring to his book ‘Fourth Eye: Excellence through Creativity’ he said that creativity in management was vital to good governance. He praised Business School students of KU advising them to excel in their subject. “Cor-porate houses would be glad to uti-lize your services” he said. Refer-ring to a question on rampant corruption in the system and role of bureaucrats, he advocated chang-ing the system rather than point-ing fingers at bureaucrats. “There is an old saying that bureaucrats are good people but trapped in a bad system” while referring to the bureaucratic system here which he termed as being ‘weberian’.

Earlier while welcoming guests, Dean Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies, Prof. Musaddiq A Sahaf gave a brief in-troduction of Prof. Khandwalla. While underlining importance of the topic of the lecture, he said that it was aimed at identifying key is-sues that need to be addressed re-lated to positively transform gover-nance in order to meet the demands of modern management systems.